Steven Universe: Last of the Lapis
by acridmoon10
Summary: When two gems, Aquamarine and Amber, trying to help out the Crystal Gems after the mad fusion Malachite spins out of control in the ocean. However, things spiral out of control, making the situation complicated, but when a small squad of gems called the Legion of Lapis Lazuli's interfere, things go from bad to worse.
1. Chapter I

CHAPTER I

 _ **STEVEN UNIVERSE**_

It all started when Amethyst ate the table. No I'm serious, she had spilled the chocolate syrup all over the table making a sprinkled-root beer-triple fudge-banana-strawberry-chocolate-vanilla-and-mint ice cream float/sundae/split with a cherry on top with me and Connie. Amethyst had squeezed the syrup too much and the thing just kinda exploded. Unfortunately, so did the Creamy Mona Lisa. Ice cream flew everywhere. It splattered the entire table and on me Connie and Amethyst.

Amethyst groaned looking angrily at the splooge she just caused. Her purple face was covered in ice cream. The hair that covered half of her face had sprinkles and banana in it. Her black tank top and sweats with stars on the knees were now green with mint ice cream, which was now trickling down her sweats. Connie was trying not to laugh as she wiped the ice cream off her face. Good thing she tied her hair back in a braid. Connie's t-shirt and jacket had flecks of chocolate fudge in them, her jeans were completely untouched. Her boots squished in the cream sludge. Amethyst grunted after a few seconds.

"Argh! Me Gelato!"

I looked down at my clothes which were covering in creamy goodness. Then I looked up at Amethyst. She had her arms crossed and was stomping her foot, getting her white boots covered in ice cream.

"We can always make another one" I said

Amethyst scoffed "Nah, It won't be the same, y'know? It's only good the first time you make a delicious mess"

"But is it still delicious even in this state?" Connie asked. She looked at her hand, which was covered in chocolate and licked it.

Amethyst looked at the plate that used to be a masterpiece. She picked up and ate it. Just like that. She just ate the plastic plate. Amethyst smacked her lips and smiled.

"You bet your bottom it does!" She exclaimed.

She started gnawing at the edge of the table, taking a few good bites in before Pearl walked in. Pearl turned at saw us and our tasty mess and groaned when she saw Amethyst.

"Amethyst stop trying to eat the table." Pearl said

Amethyst stopped biting the table, but she still clung to it like a sloth. She was engulfed in her dessert by now. You could hardly see any part that used to be her.

"ICE CREAM, ICE CREAM, ICE CREAM!" Amethyst chanted, and continued gnawing on the table. Pearl walked over and pried her away from her dessert. Amethyst flailed around wildly in Pearl's arms, throwing more ice cream everywhere. Pearl dropped Amethyst in disgust and, always striving to be clean, wiped her hands and arms with a towel. Meanwhile Amethyst had taken a piece of a table and was biting the thing like a dog. Connie walked over to the kitchen sink to wash her hands. Pearl glared at Amethyst, her hands on her hips.

"Honestly!" Pearl said, "I have no idea how you're able to act like that!"

"Maybe she's just really hungry" I said

Amethyst stopped torturing the piece of wood and laughed as she stood up.

"Duh. Why else would I actually work for something"

Connie laughed, then she slipped on the banana peel Amethyst had thrown on the floor. She landed with a _thud._ Connie sat upright and stayed silent for a moment, then laughed again, her cheeks taking a striking resemblance to the cherry stuck in her hair.

Pearl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened her eyes, she looked at the mess we were all stepping in. Pearl put her hands together and turned to us.

"Amethyst, Steven, Connie, could you please clean up this mess?" She asked, obviously trying to mask her frustration. I looked down at the floor. Wow. I did not realize what a big mess it was.

"Ummm..Can't we do this later?" I asked.

Pearl shook her head, "Oh no! You always say you'll clean up, but _I'm_ the one who always ends up cleaning the place!"

Connie and I groaned and slugged over to the cleaning closet right next to the fridge.

As soon as I opened the door, the warp-pad in front of the temple blazed to life. Garnet stepped from it and looked at Pearl in that you-should-hear-on-what-I-have-to-say look. Half of the order's she gave were completely silent, even though you couldn't see her eyes behind that red visor. Connie always told me that when she first met Garnet, she was scared of her. Now growing up with Garnet, I couldn't really relate, but I could see where she was coming from. How Garnet was like 7 feet tall and had major thunder thighs tend to be quite intimidating. Not to mention how well built she is, with the shoulder guards and everything. She looked agitated, which is never a good thing.

Pearl approached her and waited for order's. Garnet was still staring intently at the ground. As if she were trying to think of an elaborate plan. After a few silent seconds, Garnet finally looked up and gestured to Amethyst, Pearl, and I.

"There are corrupted gems approaching the city" Garnet said stoically.

Pearl was immediately alert, this scenario was one she was familiar with. Battling corrupted gems is something she was definitely familiar with.

"Alright, do you know what the gems look like" Pearl asked.

Garnet frowned "Yea. Unfortunately, there quite tough t' beat." she said "The crabs"

Amethyst jumped to her feet and whooped "Yeah! Finally something to smash!"

"The crab's again? I thought we took care of them?" I complained

Garnet shook her head. "Well, these are different one's a whole squad of em approaching the pier."

Pearl gasped, her jaw dropped "A whole SQUAD?"

Garnet crossed her arms and nodded "Mm Hm. About 5 of them as I recall."

"Then we should get going!"

Pearl whirled and faced me and Amethyst, who were still covered in ice cream. Her excited face slowly turned into a disgusted one.

"Maybe you two should wash off quickly before we go."

Connie's face lit up with excitement. She scrambled to her feet and walked up to Pearl.

"And me too, right, Pearl?" she asked

Pearl's commanding look turned into an awkward look. She rubbed her arm and didn't meet Connie's excited expression took a complete nosedive and so did my heart when I saw her expression.

"Actually Connie, I was going to warp you home to be completely safe" Pearl said reluctantly

I walked in front of Pearl "But she's been practicing!"

Pearl slowly shook her head "Yes,yes, I know that, but this is a quite dangerous mission"

I turned around and faced Connie, she looked crushed. Connie had taken a sudden interest in her boots. I knew how much she wanted to help us on a mission, ever since she started training with Pearl, she was anxious to go on missions with us. I felt like I had to convince Pearl to let Connie come.

I turned back to Pearl and opened my mouth to stand up for Connie, until she stepped forward and stood up for herself.

"No." she said as she walked up and stopped in front of Pearl looking up defiantly at her "Pearl, I have trained with you for months I should be able to fight with you guys by now!"

Pearl looked down at Connie with a stern look. "Connie, we've never seen you fight outside of training"

I brilliant idea popped in my mind, i felt my face light up like a light-bulb.

"I have!" I said speaking up "She fought the gem mutants with me at the hospital!"

Amethyst burped "At the what?"

Pearl didn't hear she stared mouth open at me "You did _what_?"

Connie smiled at me with gratitude and then turned back at Pearl. "He's right! We fought three gem monster's at the hospital and protected my mother"

Pearl looked back at Connie, her face growing stern again "Okay, I understand, Connie, but this type of corrupted gem is very dangerous!"

"More dangerous than three fusions?" Connie questioned.

"Yes!" Pearl exclaimed, anger creeping into her voice.

She projected an image of the crabs with a comparison of a person from her gem, it was like putting a man next to a helicopter.

"This gem is much MUCH larger than most things we fight and there's more than one! Connie this mission is on a level of danger that is way too high for an amateur to handle!"

Garnet, who had been watching the whole thing silently, finally spoke up. "Pearl, listen to me. If Connie can fight three of those gem's with only Steven's assistance, I'm pretty sure she can take one of the crab gems with Steven. Not t' mention we'll be there to help out"

"But…"

"Just trust Connie, you felt the same exact way for Steven"

I smiled nervously and might've even laughed nervously as well. Then Pearl threw up her arms in exasperation, as if she knew Garnet wouldn't take no for an answer

"Fine, Connie you can come, but please please be really cautious" Pearl said

Connie leaped up and yelled in triumph, then she hugged Pearl tightly. I laughed because she caught Pearl off balance and almost tackled her. Then Connie charged me and tackled me in a hug. When I stood up, I saw Amethyst wink and smile at me. Pearl looked at our clothes. "You should change quickly, though. I know I wouldn't want to fight in that disgusting mess"

Connie and I rode on Lion's back together because Garnet, Amethyst and Pearl just simply hopped over to the pier. When we got a good amount of space, Lion let out a big roar and teleported us to the wooden posts of the pier right next to the water. We had a good sight of the dark shadow the pier made on the sand. The wooden posts covered in dead coral and moss. We hopped off of Lion's back. Connie jumped off as Lion was sitting up, so she fell and landed right on top of me.

"Hey!" Connie pouted "Lion! What are you doing?"

I got to my feet and helped Connie up. Lion looked alert, sitting bolt upright and staring at the crowd in front of the arcade. In the distance, I saw Pearl looking alert with her spear, on one of the rooftops looking out at the sea like a military scout. Amethyst was behind her reclining against a bell tower with her legs crossed, looking bored. She held her whip lazily in one hand and was twirling her hair with the other. Garnet was on top of the bell tower, looking down at the people on the pier. Pearl looked down from the ocean and saw us, then she turned around to see Amethyst slacking off, and she started scolding her. Amethyst rolled her eyes and walked toward the edge, slouching. Then she jumped a good distance and landed next to us.

She blew hair out of her face "Pearl wants ya two to be up there to help her lookout"

Connie crossed her arms, looking defiant "She wants us to stay up there the entire time"

Amethyst shrugged "Can't say I know except what she told me"

Lion growled, still looking at the crowd, as if he found something threatening. The only problem was that Amethyst was in front of him, so it looked like Amethyst was getting growled at.

She crossed her arms and looked at Lion with attitude, like _Oh yeah?_.

"What's with him?" She asked with annoyance.

I shrugged "I dunno, It's either he found something or he's hungry"

Suddenly Lion lunged at Amethyst, catching her off-guard. She yelped and ducked, dropping her spear. Midair, Lion roared and teleported away.

"What the heck!?" Amethyst shouted, picking herself back up. Connie laughed behind me as Amethyst brushed herself off. Garnet and Pearl hurried over to see what the fuss was about. Of course, Pearl arrived first. She hurried over with her spear held in a fighting position.

Pearl looked at a frustrated Amethyst brushing herself off.

"What happened?" Pearl said "I told you to do one thing"

Amethyst scoffed, not looking up and still brushing sand off her hair. "Lion tried to jump me, then he teleported away"

Garnet tilted her head in confusion "He tried to tackle you?" She asked

Amethyst nodded, frustration shone in her eyes. Garnet pondered this, then looked at me.

"Steven do you or Connie know why?"

I shrugged and Connie shook her head. "He was acting a bit strange when we arrived" I said

Connie crossed her arms "Hmph" she grunted "Crazy animal catapulted me off him"

Pearl looked at Garnet, possibly for reassurance, "Maybe his connection to Rose might have something to do with it"

Garnet was thinking furiously. She had taken a sudden interest in the sand beneath her feet. She crossed her arms and sighed.

"Well, we have worse things to worry about" Garnet said, readjusting her visor "the gems could arrive at any moment"

Pearl nodded "Right we should keep a lookout"

A faint smile tugged at Garnet's lips "S' not me you should be tellin' that to."

Pearl paused, then she blushed, her cheeks turning a shade of bright blue.

Amethyst groaned "Uuuuuuugh! This is so boring! Why do have to keep a-"

She was cut off by a giant wave hitting the shore. We all turned toward the sea, drawing our weapons. Connie slowly pull my mom's sword out of it's scabbard. It was a mystical sound, metal against metal. The ring it made when the sword was completely out of its metal cage was a little intimidating. Instinctively, I found myself side to side with Connie with my shield out.

The ground rumbled and the sea groaned, yearning to free the destruction. I heard people behind me panicking and running. that gave me enough determination to defend the pier. Also, I really like the arcade. I faced the ocean and watched the corrupt gems crawl out from the depths of the sea.

Only there wasn't two of three. No, there were seven crabs, all the size of attack helicopters, barreling toward us in fury.


	2. Chapter II

_**Chapter II**_

 _ **STEVEN UNIVERSE**_

"WHAT THE…?" Pearl said, panic crawling in her voice. "I thought we were only dealing with four Garnet!"

Garnet stared in disbelief at the crabs, her jaw wide open.

"I-I thought…" She stammered, then she steeled herself, looking focused again, an angry frown tugged at her lips "No, i made a mistake. I assumed"

"EXCUSE ME!" Amethyst exclaimed, pointing at the crabs, "KILLER SEAFOOD HEADED OUR WAY!"

Pearl stepped forward, and looked at us confidently. "We can beat them, trust me. We each take a gem, excluding Steven and Connie"

Both me and Connie immediately protested "But-!"

Pearl shushed us. "You two take a gem together, let me finish next time"

We exchanged confident looks. "Got it." I said "LETS GO KICK SOME FISH STICK BUTT!"

We all yelled and charged the crabs together.

Connie and I charged side by side. I felt more confident when I fought next to Connie, more calm. She played the offense and I played the defense. We knew each other's skill and moves, and we both fought accordingly. It was like having a 6th sense.

The roar of the crab jarred me back to reality. Wait, do crabs roar? How do I describe that? It sounded kind of like a dinosaur roar.

"Steven!" Connie said, still running by my side, her eyes not leaving the monster "Give me a lift!"

I sprinted ahead and slid on my knees, putting my shield above my head.

I faced Connie "Get ready…"

"For the THUNDER!" Connie exclaimed as she jumped on top of my shield I stood up and catapulted her on top of the crab. She started rodeo-ing the thing while it thrashed her around, I charged the crab and rammed it with my shield, dazing it long enough for Connie to stick her sword in it. The tip sprouted out the belly of the crab. I winced, remorse filling my gut. Even though this is a corrupt gem, i really don't want anything getting hurt. Ever since the Centipeedle, i feel like i could help out all these. I steeled myself and took a deep breath.

The crab glowed and the entire thing retreated into its gem. Quickly, I ran over, picked up the gem, bubbled it, and warped it away. Connie ran to my side and we ran to the rest of the crabs.

It was not going well. Pearl was fighting one of the bigger crabs, it swiped at her and she dodged it with a twirl, but the other snapper nailed her and she went flying.

"Pearl!" I yelled.

"AAAAHAHAHA!" Amethyst laughed, before getting hit by a crab herself.

Garnet was trying to push herself back up from being crushed by two crabs' snappers. Amethyst on the other hand was still getting up from being smacked down on the ground. Amethyst for some reason was getting picked on by the crabs. She was facing _three_ crabs, when _Garnet_ struggled with just _two._ Amethyst by now had gotten up and was hopping around like a kangaroo on a sugar rush. She was obviously just trying to attack, but moving fast enough that the crabs couldn't catch her. She dodged swipe after swipe and snap after snap. You could tell that she was getting tired.

Meanwhile Connie and I were helping her out the best we could, but it was hard to when their legs were always scampering around.

The one of the crabs noticed me and Connie and he turned his full attention on us. Unfortunately, it attacked Connie first. I ran to help her as she held her own. I rolled under the crab and shielded both me and Connie from the crab's claws. Then i lowered it and whirled as Connie slashed at the monster, keeping away. The crab swiped at us with lightning speed and knocked both me and Connie a good distance from the crab. Then it turned and attacked Amethyst again, like we weren't worth the trouble.

I struggled to my feet and then helped Connie up. I thought for a bit. We were seriously outnumbered. I thought about we could even the odds. Maybe…

I looked at Connie, and put my hand on her shoulder "Connie?"

She looked at me, those mesmerizing hazel eyes staring into mine with anxiety. Ooookay, back it up, Steven, buddy. Just y'know tell her.

"What is it Steven?" She said "Hurry!"

I shook my head, remembering "I think we need to…"

Connie's eyes widened, a huge grin spread across her face "We need _her_?"

"Yes I think so."

"Let's do it"

Before she even finished, I grabbed ahold of her hands and started.

Right foot

Left foot

Right foot

Left foot

Connie twirled away and danced a bit and so did I. She fell backward and I caught her mid drop. I felt my gut gaining warmth. My gem glowing and then... _She_ stepped forward.

Stevonnie charged to help Amethyst

 _Wow, that never gets unweirder_ Steven said telepathically

 _Less weird_ , Connie corrected

I charged summoning Rose's shield and drawing her sword from the scabbard on my back. It was like I had done it a million times. Charging into battle with both weapons. But i knew better. This was the first time I had ever held Steven and Connie's weapons, much less fight with them

 _Woah_! Steven exclaimed, his surprise echoing in our head. _How did you know that would work?_

 _I didn't,_ I replied _Lucky guess_

 _Com'on now everyone_ , Connie scolded _Chitchat later, priorities!_

Right. Save Amethyst. I leaped and saddled one of the crabs, I stabbed it in the back but It yanked the sword from my hands before I could do anything. I slammed my shield down on it's face and poofed it. Amethyst looked up in gratitude. I offered her my hand and she took it. We stood back to back against the two remaining crabs.

"Appreciate the help you two, but to be honest, ya got luck with the weaker ones"

I chuckled, did she not see what i just did? "Don't worry, these guys should be a prob-"

Before I could finish a crab claw slapped me away from Amethyst and onto the pier. I shook my head and focused, I felt Connie and Steven in pain

 _Oooowww!_ Steven groaned

 _That really, REALLY...hurt_ Connie followed

I sat up two hooded people were watching me. one of them was a guy and they had a blue short sleeve hoodie on with a yellow star on it, cargo jeans and sneakers. Next to him was a girl with the same hoodie but it was bright orange. like the colors of the leaves on an autumn tree. the similarities ended there. She wore tight jeans and these weird gloves.

"You two should get outta here." I said

The blue one looked at his friend then back at me "You look like you need help"

The orange one nudged him "She was just thrown by a crab, what do you think, Aqua?"

 _Aqua? That's an odd name_ I thought.

 _Hurry up!_ Steven said urging me to get a move on. _Amethyst needs our help!_

I looked back at Amethyst, she was fighting with two whips now. she looked like she was getting tired. Each swing of her whips seemed to hurt her as much as the crabs.

I turned to Blue and Orange "Well, gotta go, you two should really jet"

Blue shrugged "Your loss."

I leaped toward Amethyst and landed next to her. "You mind?"

Amethyst smiled "I'd thought you'd never ask"

We started to fend of the crabs with ease. I fought close quarters while Amethyst kept them from advancing with her whip. I was going good for a bit, until they showed us that they were, in fact, the stronger ones. They started getting quicker until they were too fast for even me and Amethyst to keep up. They kept advancing until they forced me and Amethyst to fight back to back. It took me a second to realize that the other three crabs had forced Pearl and Garnet in our direction so we had ended up in a big defensive circle. Everyone looked tired and ready to pass out.

 _Not like this,_ Steven said telepathically

 _Fight to the end_! Connie cried

I gritted my teeth and gripped the hilt of Rose's sword. I was about to charge when the crab I was charging suddenly lurched forward, slamming its body on the floor, but not by choice, something forced it on the floor, and when i looked up, I saw what it was, and _boy_ was it good looking.

A gem with a blue-short sleeve hoodi-

Wait a minute

 _That's the gem was saw earlier!_ Connie said

 _Your right! That's why he's here!_ Steven exclaimed.

This time the guy had his hood off. His hair was combed to the side, and it curled up at the end. He was very good looking. Not to mention young. But gems are ageless, so he could be millennia old. He looked around 20 or so for a human. Y'know what? He looked like a skateboarder. The dude was holding a sword against the crab's shell. He stood upright and saw me.

He smiled mischievously, a cute troublemaker smile that made me nervous, like a kid who had a firecracker and was ready to set it off. "You still need help?" The guy said.

"I...umm...y-yes" I stammered.

He chuckled "Well, this guy-" he patted his foot on the crab gem's shell. "-Should be out for a while"

 _Stevonnie?_ Connie asked in my mind _Are you alright?_

He jumped down from the shell and ran in my direction. He joined the defensive circle. Oh damn! That's right! We were about to die! I snapped back into reality and continued fighting. The new guy fought like a demon, slashing viciously with his sword and playing offense rather than helping out to defend, with was throwing us off. I heard someone scream in pain. I turned around and saw Pearl on the floor, struggling to rise and using her spear to support herself. One of the crab gems closed in for the kill, none of us fast enough to save her. The new guy slid under a crab's shell and held his sword up.

"Amber! Now!" He yelled.

Suddenly another gem, the orange one from before, leaped up and slammed the crab down, straight on the blue gem's sword. The crab retreated into its gem. The Blue Gem caught it before it hit the ground. He stood up and high-fived the orange gem. She had long orange hair and it was very messy, but not Amethyst-messy. It was like tidy helmet-hair. She had a shy but very outgoing vibe to her features. I realized her gloves were not gloves, but gauntlets. They were very lightly armored and had her gem on the underside of both arms. Odd. She had two gems on both arms. She looked around 20 or so for a human as well.

Regardless, they both charged in our direction. The girl pulled out two wickedly long hunting knives from her gem. Each one as long as her forearm.

The blue gem chuckled a bit, "Four down..."

The girl smiled "...Three to go"

They didn't say anything else as they fought. Nor did we. Actually, we didn't even fight. The two new gems did everything, working as a team. They worked so harmoniously, it was like they made music and they made the beat. One of the three crabs threw its claw and the Blue Gem. As fast as light, he summoned a shield and held it up as the claw slammed into him. His shield protected him, but he still slid a good distance on the ground, his legs leaving an imprint on the sand as he was shoved back. He steadied himself and charged again. He lunged forward and the girl jumped up above the crab simultaneously. He rammed his full weight plus the force he built up on the crab, flipping it over and the girl landed on its belly sticking both knives down in it.

 _POOF!_

The girl landed and caught the gem, shoving in her pocket.

They charged the last two crabs separately. As they fought the crabs I noticed that they fought with insane skill. Moving cleverly and very skillfully. Y'know how you watch someone playing a videogame and they speedrun it with crazy skill and rhythm? That's how it was like.

 _Wow! They had SERIOUS training._ Steven said telepathically.

 _No duh_. Connie replied

The two lined each other up and rammed the crabs simultaneously. The two crabs fell backward into each other and slammed their shell's together with such force, they poofed. The Blue and Orange gem both walked over to the gems that lied in the sand picked them up and high-fived each other. Then they started walking over to us. It was extremely silent. The only noise was their footsteps in the sand. The Blue gem looked at me, then my weapons. He stopped dead in his tracks.

"Those are Rose's weapons…" He muttered

The orange gem stopped and looked at him "What?"

He pointed at my shield at sword. "But only Steven...and... Connie…" His jaw dropped "You two can _FUSE_?"

"Wait _WHAT_?" the orange one exclaimed. She examined me up and down, her face slowly gaining a look of shock "How the heck…?"

I blushed, "It's Stevonnie"

"Oh that's so cute." the Blue one said

the orange one looked back at him "What?"

"Beck even made a ship name for them" he said smiling

"Who?" The orange gem looked confused. He waved aside the question. He walked up to Pearl. She panicked and held his spear up to him.

"W-What do you want?" she asked him, anxiously "WHY ARE YOU HERE?!"

He backed up, his hands raised innocently. "Nice to finally meet you too, Pearl."

She stepped forward, still holding the spear up to him. Garnet put her hand on Pearl.

"Calm down, Pearl."

Amethyst scoffed "Yeah, P. I mean they did just save our lives."

Pearl whirled on Amethyst "We don't need saving! Were-"

" _Pearl!_ " Garnet warned.

Pearl closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay. Okay, I'm calm"

Garnet turned toward the gem's "Who are you, and why are you here.

The Blue gem, still having his hands raised, replied. "My name is Aquamarine."

The orange one spoke up "And my name's Amber"

"We want to help. You're gonna need all of the help you can get to stop Homeworld"


	3. Chapter III

**_CHAPTER III_**

 ** _AMBER_**

After we all calmed down and just talked, we decided that we talk inside. Connie tagged along for some reason or another. Regardless Aqua and Garnet talked about what we were doing here and how we got there while I hung out with the rest of the Gems. I knew about how humans worked, how they hung out. Pearl, for someone who had been here for a few millennium, knew nothing. Amethyst sat between Pearl and I but closer to Pearl. I understood. Steven being the friendly boy he is brought over something and put it down on the coffee table, it was a plate of a few dozen microwaved peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with chips next to them. I grinned,I happened to like food….ALOT. We had been around long enough for me to taste every food. Literally every. Single. Food that has ever existed. I have tasted Greek cheese and bread, the first pizza. I have Chinese food during the Liao dynasty, not as good as you would think. Regardless, I freaking LOVE food. So i hounded the plate with Amethyst, basically inhaling sandwiches while Pearl stared in disgust, we finished the chips and I looked at Amethyst. She burped and looked at me and grinned. I wiped my face with a napkin.

"I ate 4 sandwiches" I said "You?"

Amethyst scoffed "Pfft. 8 sandwiches and more than half of the chips" she boasted, then she burped again.

I laughed "Are you always like this"

Amethyst leaned back and exhaled. "Yeah, man. Other than days where there are missions, all i do is just chill in my room of garbage, yo"

"'Garbage'? You're kidding"

"Nah, it's literally heaps of junk, a new bed every day"

Pearl gagged and held onto her stomach "How could you live in a dump like that?" She moaned

Amethyst chuckled "You wonder how I live every time I mention it, P"

"Because you never explain it, you impossible..."

"Pearl, please" I said "No-one should ever have to justify the way they live, I happen to prefer the 'organized mess' myself"

Amethyst laughed "See?! Amber, knows what's up!" She nudged my side.

I put my legs on the coffee table and leaned back, my arms on the back of my head.

"Ya know it, sis'"

Pearl grunted and crossed her arms "Ugh, you're all savages"

I chuckled "Mission accomplished"

Pearl grunted "Slob"

"Ostrich" Amethysts retorted.

I felt like I had a sister and Pearl was our mom we never listened to. Aquamarine and I had families like this, we had thought they were close that they would last forever, but they didn't. We were abandoned. Turned in. Betrayed. Even torn from those families. It had been so long since then and it was almost euphoric to feel like I had a sister again. I smiled at the thought of it. Then I saw Connie walking over and sat next to Steven, who was looking at me and Amethyst laugh, his eyes glittering with joy. I looked and Connie and gave my best sisterly smile.

"Did you make these?" I asked.  
She blushed, rubbing her arm "Y-yes"  
I gave her a thumbs up "They're really good"

Connie laughed nervously, her cheeks getting more red. I looked up at Aquamarine who was still talking to Garnet. I found myself staring and Aquamarine caught my eye, he stopped talking and looked at me. He blushed and tried to look back at Garnet with a normal face. He so cute when he's embarrassed. Garnet looked at me and smiled, she had her visor off at the moment and winked at me. She looked back at Aquamarine and they kept talking. I looked back at Amethyst and Pearl and they were looking at me smiling mischievously.  
"What" I said, smiling nervously.  
"Oooooooh!" Amethyst exclaimed. Y'know, like a third grader,"You like him"  
Pearl stayed silent, but it was clear she was entertained.

"Duh" I said rolling my eyes still blushing."You haven't seen us together?"

Pearl laughed "Amber, dear, we only met you today, we never could guess the state of your relationship with him"

"Oh," I said, trying not to laugh, because of a certain little fact I decided to keep to myself. "That's right"

Still, It was a dumb comment. How could I have forgotten that? I had felt so glad I was part of a family again I had forgotten I just met them like 2 hours ago. I had a loss for words, I was so embarrassed. That kinda happened often. I freeze up if I get too embarrassed or nervous. Amethyst spoke up to break the ice again.

"You do that on purpose to huh?" Amethyst said, her head and cheeks resting in her hands, leaning close to me, grinning like a kid on a sugar high.

"Do what?" I asked

"Purposely mess up his funky flow because you know he likes you too" she giggled.

I shrugged, still blushing "Well, yeah, but most of the time I don't try"

Steven looked up, his jaw dropped "Don't try? Amber, you don't mess with man's funky flow, Amber!"

I raised an eyebrow "Similar to your funky flow with Connie?"

Honestly, I don't know who's face was redder, Steven's or Connie's.

Amethyst said "Hey, Amber! How often do ya like napping, homegirl?"

She had turned into sloth and was hanging on to the fan above us. I turned it in and said "clearly not as much as you" as she flew around the fan making that noise you make when you're on a bumpy road when you're a kid. I decided to be a nosey little bird with Aquamarine and Garnet. I shape shifted into a canary and flew over to Aqua's shoulder  
 _  
_ _ **SURPRISE! AQUAMARINE'S POV NOW!**_

Just as I was thinking about the answer to Garnet's question for how we were able to stay out of sight from the gems so long, an orange canary landed on my shoulder. It was obviously Amber being a little curious goof.

"Whatcha guys talking about?" She asked

Garnet laughed a bit "She's a shapeshifting troublemaka' too?"

I rolled my eyes smiling "Yeah, it gets annoying sometimes, but I learned to deal with it"

A purple cat jumped up and landed on Garnet's hair, obviously Amethyst. She grinned at Amber. Amber tucked her head back into her body and snuggled next to my shoulder. I put her in my hands and rubbed her head. Amethyst pounced. Amber yelped "Eep!" Jumped out of my hands and flew on the coffee table. Eventually they were playing an odd game of keep-away-along-the-clearing. I felt like I should help out Amber, but I knew it was friendly rough housing. Eventually Amethyst caught Amber but she shape-shifted again into a dog, an orange husky. This kept going back and forth until Steven ran back to the table with oyster crackers. Amethyst instantly forgot about Amber and flew over to Steven as an owl.

"Nom Noms" she exclaimed "FEEED MEE!"

"I get dibs!" Amber called and she scurried over as a bear cub.

Amethyst was crawling all over Steven trying to get the oyster crackers, he didn't seem to mind. Amber turned back into her normal, beautiful self and snagged the bowl, sat down and started to devour the crackers. Amethyst flew over and Amber let her land on her arm. They both chomped like savages. There was something oddly pleasing about the sight to me, though. It was like watching a pair of twin sharing a memorable moment. I decided this is exactly what this was. A memorable moment.

Garnet smiled slightly and looked over the four like a mother would.

"They're my family" she said "I would do anything to help them"

Steven jumped down from his room above, yelled "Steven-Bomb!" and tackled Amethyst onto the couch. Pearl started laughing hysterically, even snorting once or twice. Oyster crackers spilled everywhere. Everyone was laughing. Even me and Garnet, although Garnet just chuckled.

She turned back to me her face serious again. "So what brings two you here?" She asked

"Well, we heard about the *

* 'confrontation' you had with Peridot and the trouble your having with Lapis Lazuli and Jasper. We thought we could help considering all the stuff you guys go through on a daily basis"

"Well, I don' mind the extra help." Garnet said "Only problem being is that we have no clue where any of them are."

I raised an eyebrow "Like, no idea at all?"

She frowned "Not for sure, at least. Steven gave us a bit of an update, Lapis is keeping Malachite under control. I'm worried though. If she loses it. Then we got a very powerful fusion lose out of rage"

"Okay, I can understand that, but how did Steven get this information exactly?"

Garnet readjusted her visor, which she did when she was uncomfortable. "He had these dreams. They were somewhat precognitive and clairvoyant"

"Say what now?"

"Means that-"

I laughed, cutting her off "Just messing with ya. I know what it means, he could see stuff he can't physically see in real life, but he sees them in his dreams"

She smirked a bit "Yeah. It's not just me that's worried though, it's been awhile since then. We haven't heard since"

I thought for a bit, mainly about Lapis. She was the main reason we were here. Even Amber didn't…

No.

Too early in the plot.

So ANYWAYS. Just ignore what I was saying yeah? I looked at Amber, who was still horsing around with Amethyst and Steven. I thought about Peridot this time.

"Do you think we should find Peridot before Lapis and Jasper?"

Garnet tilted her head. I could imagine her squinting at me from behind her visor.

"Find Peridot before Malachite?" She said "You can't possible be serious"

I shrugged "Lapis is way stronger than she looks and Peridot could be a serious problem with her intellect."

Garnet pondered this "Maybe, if she has any brains at all, but how do ya know about Lapis?"

"I knew her a few millennium back. She was like my...sister"

I pretended to shrug the comment off like it was nothing. It was in fact something that I knew her. But I decided not to mention that. There was no need to.

"Alright, then, we find Peridot and capture her. Then what do we do with her?"

I shrugged again "I dunno. Throw her in the bathroom and board it up."

Garnet grinned "I like your thinking, boy"

I laughed, feeling like I was talking trash with my mom about someone we mutually hated. The second half was true. Sure, there were many Peridot's, but this one I had a beef with.

"She could have insight about Malachite, maybe" I said "Maybe even help us with some stuff"

Garnet shrugged "I don't see why not. The lil' green stain has got to be useful somehow"

I nodded. Peridots were quite smart when it came to brains. Hell, she might even give Pearl a run for her money. Which reminds me, our Pearl seems to be quite advanced compared to other Pearls. Regardless, I felt like i had an obligation to help out these last remaining Crystal Gems. They deserved help. I wish i had studied Homeworld more when me and Amber lived there all those millennium ago. It would've helped out a lot. Even if we did, Amber and I haven't actually been to Homeworld in such a long time. Sure, we jumped to Diamond Faction to Diamond Faction at times, but there was only 6 of them, Red Diamond, Orange Diamond, Yellow Diamond, Green Diamond, Blue Diamond, and Purple Diamond. Earth seemed nice, but we didn't want to get stranded on it. Thanks, Yellow. Really appreciate the rusty dagger in my back from someone who told me they would never hurt me.

Honestly, though, I think it was for the best. I learned so much from this planet. Humans are such fascinating creatures. The way they face death at the hands of each other all the time amazes me. However they can die of age. We tried to make a family here, but when you're an ageless being on a world of mortals, things get quite lonely. At least I had Amber. We heard that Rose Quartz took refuge in a democratic country in North America and we decided to settle there. Then Steven came into the equation. I had never seen him as a baby, we had to stay hidden from every gem we came into contact to. It wasn't until recently when it became our business. I had a world to help protect and some good old fashioned, righteous revenge. So far, it's been going well, and I don't feel that lonely anymore.

Garnet gave me a really really hard pat on the back and smiled. "You should rest," She said "You've done enough for us already"

I laughed a bit. "Garnet, both of us know that we both deserve some rest."

She shrugged, her smile turning into a grin "Can't argue with that"

We both walked over to the couch. Amethyst and Amber were wrestling at this point. I slumped down on the cushions and sighed. The warmth of having so many people laughing was very relaxing and comforting. It almost made me forget that this wonderful, beautiful world might end soon.


	4. Chapter IV

_**CHAPTER VI**_

 **AQUAMARINE**

Alright! My own chapter! Well, I did talk in the last one but I didn't get the whole thing to myself. So anyways, my name is Aquamarine. Despite the title of this book, I am, indeed, the protagonist. Or main character, they're the same thing.

Back to the story! Hope ya don't get bored.

A day had passed since we met the Crystal Gems and absolutely wrecked the crabs that were a "major" threat to Beach City.I was talking to Steven while he was playing on his video game and was getting up to speed. He was telling me everything, everything that had happened since Gem Glow back in Season-

Uhhh...I mean, since he summoned his shield with the Centipeetle. He had some wild adventures. Hell, they could even compare to mine, but that's a story for another time. He told me about watermelons, fire salt, duplication wands, and more. He was in the middle of explaining the whole situation with Lapis Lazuli. I had heard the story from Garnet's point, but Steven explained it in a whole different way. Like a pacifist. That was the perfect way of putting it. he hardly spoke negative of anyone, expect for Jasper. Even then, he sounded reluctant to say so. I got to hear about the dream communication he had with Lapis, which was something i still had trouble understanding. He told me about the first dream, in incredible detail, might I add.

Steven paused his game and looked up to me "Garnet said something in that dream, I don't think it has anything to do with Lapis, but I was wondering if it had to do with Homeworld"

I leaned closer "What is it?"

"I don't know exactly, but it sounded like...chilly teed"

"Chille tid?"

"Bingo"

"Wait, I thought it was 'Chille tid'?"

"No meant 'bingo' like as in 'you got it'"

"Just messing with ya" I said, chuckling "Chille tid means 'Chilling time' in a foreign language"

"I guess we were just chilling. Although Pearl's dream was pretty funny."

"What was it about?"

He laughed again "Well, it was pretty weird, I'm not sure you would get it."

I leaned on my shoulder's "Try me"

"Okay" Steven said, as he flopped on the floor. "So I just woke up from the dream I was talking about and I saw Amethyst laying down next to Pearl, she was laughing and looking at the ceiling, I asked what she was laughing about and she pointed at Pearl's dream which was being shown on the roof" He pointed ahead at the ceiling "I saw my-"

Steven never finished. He was cut off by the sound of the Crystal Temple door opening up, we both looked over and saw Amethyst getting thrown from the door. She flew over the warp pad and landed, tumbling on the floor and stopped right next to the coffee table.

Amber peeked out of the door, her hair even more messier than it already is. Her sweater and cargo pants stained and marked with dirt and mud.

She laughed triumphantly "I win!"

Amethyst sat up and struggled to her feet "Jeez! Where did you learn to wrestle like that?" she asked.

Amber leaned on the door crossing her legs and arms. "I have my ways" she said. She shot me a glance and I smiled and gave her a thumbs up.

"A few thousand years as interplanetary fugitives really improves your fighting skills, Amethyst. You should try it sometimes" I said.

Amethyst laughed and turned toward me "Nah. I think I'll pass on that life. I'll stick to this.".

She turned back to Amethyst and grinned mischievously "Ready for round two, redhead?"

Amber got into a defensive stance "Ready when you are, sis"

Amethyst snickered and crouched down to pounce, then she leaped forward, morphed into a lion and actually pounced. Amber yelped and ran from Amethyst.

"AMETHYST I SAID NO MORPHING DAMMIT!"

"AHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The door closed, leaving me and Steven laughing like maniacs. When I finally calmed down, I wiped tears from my eyes, and looked at Steven. He was still rolling on the floor, laughing uncontrollably, tears flowing down his face. It took him a few minutes to calm down as well.

"Are you done?" I asked.

"Y-yeah." Steven said, as he wiped his face "I'm fine"

"Good, cause your game is still on"

Steven glanced at his TV, the game was still paused. He snatched up the controller and turned off the game. He fiddled with the buttons and normal a normal animated TV show popped up on the screen.

"I'm done with video games for today. I want to show you my favorite TV show!" he said, letting loose and adorable smile.

I stood up and nudged his shoulder "Sure," I said. "but first we should get something to eat, no?"

Steven's face lit up lit up even more. "Yeah! I'm in the mood for some donuts! What do you think Mr. Stomach?" He looked at his belly and patted. Steven looked back up and smiled. "He said he want's some donuts too"

I started walking down the stairs "How about some homemade pizza?"

"That's a thing?"

"Sure it is! I know how to make it" I said, totally not bragging here.

"Then make it already!" he exclaimed.

I got the ingredients out as he stood next to me. I washed my hands and started going to work, mixing the flour and such. I was in the middle of spreading the dough when something happened. There was a breeze of wind, a streak of yellow with traces of red. The streak had electricity spouting from it. Unfortunately, I knew what it was. I knew _who_ it was. It flew across the whole house in a flash. Before I could even scowl, It was gone. Everything in the house was nice and clean. Everything was in a proper place and picked up. Steven looked at me, my face still sour. "What was that?"

I didn't answer. I looked down to continue making the pizza, only I didn't need to. The pile of dough had turned into a raw pizza. Ingredients on it too. Cheese, sauce, pepperoni and everything. The table was cleaned and everything was put away. The pizza had the ingredients on it and everything on a wooden oven pan. Next to it was a note. It said:

 _You came out first, alright?_

 _If you need anything, you know where to find me._

 _-T_

"Who's 'T'?" Steven asked.

"A….friend" I replied, annoyed "Don't worry about it, besides, the pizza is ready to be put in the oven."

Steven looked at the pizza, his eyes widened "Hold on. Whaaaaat?"

I shoved the pizza into the oven and turned it on. I set it to the right time and hit 'Start'. The thing hummed to life and started heating up.

"Wait, what just happened?" Steven asked.

"I...just put the pizza in the oven" I said, playing dumb.

"No! Before that! The red streak that flashed through the entire house. What was that?"

I washed my hands in the sink rubbing the flour off of my arms. "I told you, it was a friend. Now the pizza won't be ready for half an hour so why don't we pass the time watching TV?"

Steven looked at me reluctantly, then a TV theme song came on and he completely forgot about everything and ran upstairs to his room screaming "CRYING BREAKFAST FRIENDS!"

I followed him up. Why not? It'll get my mind off of... _her._ I slumped on the bed and leaned in close on top of Steven's fluffy hair. On the TV there was a pear and a spoon, they were eating ice cream. Then for seemingly no reason they spilled them on the floor, looked at each other and started crying. They started hugging and tried comforting each other. I looked at Steven, who was looking at the screen with an excited face.

"This is what you watch?" I asked .

"I know, It's a bit slow at the start, but it really picks up later in the episodes" Steven replied, his eyes, not leaving the screen.

Suddenly the screen went static and started glitching out and everything.

"Aw, not again. It was doing this yesterday too." he said, complaining

I stood up and walked over "Hang on, I got it. I've handled a few TVs before"

I fiddled with the wires a bit. Red, Blue, Yellow, input, output, audio, video, composite. When I saw done, I stood up and peeked over the TV "How about now?"

Instead of going back to normal, the thing started vibrating. It wasn't shaking violently, like it were to if it were to break, but it was vibrating. So it wasn't breaking, but something was happening to it. The problem was i had no idea what. Did I mention I completely _hate_ it when I don't know stuff? It happens _a lot,_ especially with a knowledge nut like Amber.

Steven leaned forward, surprised "It's never done that before."

A glitched, warped video of something green appeared, gibberish was coming from the speakers. Then the video started to stabilize and i was able to recognize a certain green triangle I knew. The image of Peridot, along with the audio stabilized even more and whatever she was trying to say started to make sense.

"This is Peridot transmitting on all frequencies from abandoned crystal system colony planet Earth, to Yellow Diamond. My mission has been compromised, my escort and informant are gone and I am now stranded! Please send help!"

Somewhere in the middle, I heard Steven pull out his phone and dial someone. After the video had finished instead of shutting off, the video repeated, it cut off and started over like a broken record "This is Peridot transmitting on all frequencies from…"

I turned to Steven and he was still in his phone

"Okay, thanks." Steven said as he hung up "Connie says it's on her TV too."

We called the rest of the Gems over and made them watch the video. I saw Amber's eyes flame with anger, so much that I could almost see the flames in her eyes. They looked so real and genuine.

Pearl was confused, "But where could Peridot be broadcasting a signal that strong?"

I nodded "That's exactly what I was wondering. No broadcast station from Earth is powerful enough for that."

"Maybe, her stupid getaway...erm...ball could do whatever you're talking about"

I shook my head, not meeting Amethyst's eyes "No, a gem escape pod is able to send distress signals that are quite powerful but not like _this_. It needs to be a grounded station."

"But, _where_?" Pearl asked, sounding exasperated.

Garnet looked up from the TV, Peridot's cry for help still playing. A frustrated frown tugged at her cheeks.

"There's one place." She grimaced and folded her arms "and it's not from Earth"

Have you ever teleported on the back of a pink lion? Its not as fun as you think. Especially when you're on it with 2 other gems. The entire world streaked and became unidentifiable lines, and we leaped forward. It looked alot like when a ship hits lightspeed in Star Wars. Everything was a streak that we zoomed past. Wind slapped me in the face and almost blew me off Lion, I tightened my grip on Garnet's waist and Amber gripped my chest. Finally, Lion came out of the crazy warp speed. We leaped out of a portal and landed on sand, debris littered the surrounding area. The chunks were all shapes sizes. Lion shuddered and dropped down from exhaustion.

Steven's head sticked out of Lion's mane from his pocket dimension gasping for air "Lion, are you okay?" He asked and pet him on the head affectionately.

We leaped off and gathered our surroundings. I noticed Amber was still staring straight ahead on Lion's back, completely frozen.

"You okay, sunshine?"

Her eyes slowly met mine and her blank face morphed into a wide grin.

"That...was….AWESOME! We just like _flew_ at the speed sound in a few seconds!"

Garnet didn't seem to hear. She looked up at the glowing tower and grunted.

"It's as I feared." She said

The Communication Hub was glowing, filling the dark area with a bright glow. It was shooting a beam of light towards the sky. Almost like a beacon. Y'know what, it was a beacon.

Pearl gasped, her expression was slightly amazed and impressed "It looks like Peridot somehow repaired the Communication Hub."

"Her pod." Garnet said "Her pod musta made it easier for her to repair most of it. If she didn't have it. I would have been smaller."

Steven's face lit up, he had an idea. I liked his ideas. "So... we just gotta wreck it up again, right?" He turned to Amethyst "You guys should form Sugilite!"

Okay. Maybe not that one. I heard the little slip they had with Sugilite. Heard Nicki-I mean Sugilite,caused quite the trouble. I wanted to object, but I figured maybe Amethyst could redeem herself. Also me and Amber could interfere if stuff went bad.

Amethyst looked up, a faint smile tugging at her lips.

"Yeah... Well, it's up to Garnet, I guess." the smile grew wide and hopeful. She turned to Garnet.

"What do you say? Shall we mash it up?"

"No." Garnet flatly replied

Amethyst's expression took a nosedive "But, don't we need to be huge like last time?"

Garnet scowled "Last time was a disaster! Last time we were here, Sugilite went berzerk! She's the reason we can't even _warp_ here anymore" she gestured to the shattered warp pad a few meters away. Then she sighed and took off her visor.

"Look, I could be brash, you could be reckless. Together, we could both get carried away. So…" she put her visor back on "...for the time being, Sugilite is benched"

Amethyst's chin drooped on her chest. Amber patted her back. Amethyst looked up and smiled with gratitude. Garnet looked back at the hub. Only a fusion would fix this problem. But if she won't fuse with Amethyst, then…

"What we need is to be careful." She turned toward Pearl and put her hand on her shoulder. "It's you and me Pearl, lets fuse"

Amber and I exchanged panicked looks. We both know how Pearl was with fusion. Sardonyx wasn't the problem. The problem was Pearl. She could get slightly greedy with fusion. And with someone as powerful as Garnet...well there's a reason they haven't fused in so long.

This is the part where i put my foot down.

"Hold on," I said "You guys do so much for the team. How about Amber and I take this one?"

Amber's face lit up like a lightbulb, she knew I had an awesome idea. Garnet on the other hand looked curious.

"What did you have in mind?" she asked, a little irritated.

Woah. Ok. A little attitude, huh? I felt like retorting, but then I remembered that Ruby was half of Garnet and I remembered her temper. I decided not to poke the bear and just get to it.

"Well, we were thinking that you four in general sit this one out, let someone else take the burden y'know?" I said, hoping they would buy it. It was like bluffing in a game of poker. The pressure slowly climbing. Amber stepped in, sensing my situation and saving me for things going bad.

"It's sorta the same idea you have" She turned towards me and held out her hand. "Shall we?"

I grinned, "I'd thought you'd never ask, m'lady" I took her hand and walked away from the gems holding hands.

As we were walking, Steven caught up to us and looked at both of us excitedly.

"Are you two going to fuse?"

Amber leaned over toward Steven "You know it, little man!" she poked his nose.

He laughed and ran back to the rest of the gems. I really liked Steven, he as always so optimistic. Steven had that charisma that was really adorable and it was really hard to be in a bad mood when he was in the room. When you were in a bad mood, he really help you up. Kid has way with words, I tell ya. Either way, Steven was really fun and happy to be around. That kid is going to go real far.

We stopped a few feet from the broken warp pad. Then we took a few paces away from each other and got into position. We both knew the beat, the song. We noded at each other and began.

The style in which we danced was admittedly similar. I danced like how a modern teenager would. y'know the slick dance moves with the occasional slide and such. To physically synchronize with Amber, however, I would need to cooperate with the remix dancing. That's how Amber danced. She liked the remix songs and the way you could just move with the beat. Whipped her hair, did flips, even hit the quan humor me. As we danced, we slowly moved toward each other. We were almost there. I could feel my gem glowing and my thoughts clearing. My only focus was Amber. It wasn't hard though. She was always good-looking. Her slim, athletic figure made her dancing all the more stunning. At least to me. I did a few moves then hopped up as Amber ran toward me. I grabbed her in my arms and we started twirling. As we were spinning, we went faster and faster, glowing brighter and brighter until our whole bodies were glowing. Then we fused.

The feeling of fusion is unlike anything you could ever imagine. Your partner and you become one to make this entirely new and powerful fusion. You can see through the fusion's eye's, hear what they hear, taste what they taste, but you have little control. You become a passenger on a giant sentient train. Our fusion started out on one knee. We were around 11 feet tall, give or take. We looked up and faced Steven.

"Aaaaaaaaaand, How are you good-looking gemstones doing this evening?"

"Giant...Man?" Steven said, tilting his head in confusion.

"My name is Turquoise" He replied, standing up "I am here to….uhhh…"

 _Smash things! like this Communication Hub!_ I told him telepathically.

 _Destroy, not smash it._ Amber said, her voice like an echo in my head

Did I mention we could talk to him in his head? That's a thing we can do. Y'know what? I'll just let Turquoise take the spot from here on out alright? Alright

 _TURQUOISE._

Wow. It's been such a long time since the two fused. I was confused dazed and frankly not myself. I decided I would cut the Hub to shreds instead of blindly wacking it. After all, it _was_ the reason I was here. To be careful.

"I'm here to be handsomely awesome, I guess." I said, shrugging my shoulders. Then I looked down at Steven. I smiled.

"Speaking of handsome…." I walked up to Steven, kneeling down. "If it isn't the charming Steven Universe?" I said, walking up to him.

I picked him up and held him in my hands. The little guy was so small! He was no bigger in my hands than a small little stuffed animal in yours.

"It is so nice to finally meet you, Mr. Universe! You see, I haven't exactly been half of what I usually am lately" I said, with a wink.

 _Oh giv'it a break, Turquoise._ Amber said.

Steven didn't quite have the same reaction. "Fusion pun!" He said, laughing. It was so bright a laugh. I had to join in too. After a bit, I put the boy down and kneeled in close.

"Time for me to go to work" I said. Then I stood up and cracked my knuckles, facing the hub. The Crystal Gems looked up to me, literally. I walked over, my boots crushing any debris that used there. The Hub was about 3 times taller than me. I looked back down at the Gems, who were still frozen, looking at me in astonishment. I kneeled down and looked at them closely.

"Hi there." I said "You're kinda standing on my workspace. I'm gonna have to ask you to kindly move"

Garnet smiled "Wouldn't want to get in the way of _your_ workspace" She said then she leaped away. Pearl glared at me for one reason or another and leaped away. She was followed by Amethyst who winked at me playfully.

"Lets get to work then" I said grinning up at the soon-to-be former Communication Hub.

I summoned Amber's hunting knives and threw them up in the air, then quickly pulled out Aquamarines sword. The two weapons glowed and changed shape. The sword handle extended and the hilt flew up the shaft., the knives flew toward the hilt and the sword blade shortened. When the glowing faded, I was holding my lovely trident. I stabbed it in the dirt and jumped on the unbreakable shaft. I jumped up and used the trident as a spring. I grabbed the weapon as I flew upward and smacked the top off the Hub. The pillar went flying into the distance. I went to work jumping, leaping, and cutting. mostly cutting though. I laughed as I did so and Steven was laughing with glee the entire time. When I was done I landed in front of the gems and steadied myself, holding my trident as a staff.

"Done!" I said.

"But the Hub is practically untouched!" Pearl complained

I slammed my trident on the ground, keeping my eyes on the Gems. I could hear the tower collapse down behind me. The pillars were in pieces. Never to be able to be used again.

"WOOOOAAAH!" Steven yelled, his hands on his cheeks.

I smiled and looked at him then at the rest of the Gems. I chuckled a bit, not gonna lie.

"Some things are not what they seem" I warned. "Keep that in mind."

I spinned my Trident and It glowed then exploded into butterflies, Amber's favorite bird.

"If you ever are in need of my handsomely good skills, let Aqua and Amber know, I'll be there in a flash" I kneeled down as I felt myself splitting "Literally"

 _AQUAMARINE_

We unfused and I was holding Amber up, looking into her orange, beautiful eyes. I pulled her up and laughed triumphantly. The rest of the gems joined in. There was a lot of laughing and high-fiving. Except for Pearl. She was being salty, as usual. However, i could sense the sodium chloride grow stronger and stronger in her. I decided not to tick her off.

In two trips on Lion's back, we left back to the house. I was just about to order pizza when I heard the oven. _DING!_

Steven, who was on the couch. Jumped up and said "Pizza's ready!"

I had forgotten all about the pizza we made. Or at least tried to make before my old 'friend' decided to barge in on me. Regardless. That's what we ate. Lucky for everyone, I made the thing really big. The reasons being was that before I even got a single slice, Amethyst and Amber had helped themselves to a third of the whole damn pizza each. So yeah. Pearl obviously declined to eat, but she was still throwing her NaCl all over the place. Amber and Amethyst talked and made jokes with their mouths full of pizza. Somewhere in all the commotion, Garnet excused herself and leaned against the ward pad. I couldn't blame her, Amethyst alone was disgusting to watch, and the fact that _Amber_ was joining in on it was a bit disturbing. I could handle it though. Hey, if I could handle Amber for a few millenia, I could handle two. It was getting late.

"Hey, Steven?" I asked "You tired, man?"

His response: falling face forward on the couch. He fell right in front of Amethyst who started dying of laughter when he landed. I rolled my eyes and slung him over my shoulder. I walked up stairs and put Steven in his bed. I took off his sandals and tucked him in. It was a peaceful sight. It was like watching a very big, stocky, baby fall asleep on Christmas Eve. I could almost hear a choir singing 'Silent Night'. You know how when you're little and your parents have their friends over, and you try to go to sleep while half-drunk adults are still partying outside the warm comfort of your room? It was like that. I walked down stairs and sat down on the couch.

I thought of the old times I had with Amber. With Blue Diamond, with Lapis Lazuli, so on and so forth Blah blah blah, ya get the idea. I was about to fall asleep when I heard someone call em name. I looked up and saw Garnet looking right at me.

"Aqua, come here, I want to talk to you"


	5. Chapter V

_**Chapter V**_

 _ **AQUAMARINE**_

I sat up and walked over to Garnet who was looking at the ground like she was deep in thought. I immediately started feeling nervous. I mean, cut me some slack, the woman is like 7 feet tall, she has massive muscular build, like a professional rugby player.

"So what's up? You needed me?" I asked, trying to strangle my uneasiness into submission.

"Yeah. It's about Turqouise" Garnet said.

Oooooh no. I hope this wasn't on to something. "What is it?"

"He seemed familiar not t' mention powerful"

I shrugged, trying not to look nervous "You put two powerful gems together and you get a really strong fusion. It's how Sugilite or Sardonyx are really powerful"

Garnet shook her head, still looking like she was deep in thought "It's not all about the amount of strength of the gems fused, it's mostly the strength of the bond that causes the fusion"

I raised an eyebrow, letting my mischievous and humorous personality out. Luckily the conversation wasn't what "Your the expert on fusion, Ms. 5-millenia-fusion"

Garnet smirked "You two could go quite a long time fused together"

"We did do that for a time" I said

"Oh?" Garnet lowered her visor looking at me, all three eyebrows raised. "How long?"

"Time was difficult then," I admitted "But about a few hundred years."

She put her visor back on "What happened?"

"We missed seeing each other with our own eyes." I said "You can't beat that"

Garnet smiled, looking at Amber. She tried to hide it, but she was holding in a laugh. Giggle, even. Ruby was flirting with Sapphire. That's the good part about this story, there's no "trying-to-get-the-girl-while-saving-world" plot. You'll see what I mean. I know the fact that Steven and Connie have a not-so-secret secret crush on each other. But honestly, in my eyes, they're a couple. It still bothered me slightly that they could fuse. A human and a gem? How was that even possible? Maybe the human side of Steven has something to do with it? No, don't think about it. It gives me a headache. I started talking to Garnet to get my mind off it.

"When was the last time you saw someone like me?"

She looked back at me, still smirking "What do ya mean?"

"You know…" I gestured to my entire body.

Garnet tilted her head, frowning. Wha-? How had she had not noticed? It's should be so obvious to her!

"A 'male' gem! When was the last time you saw a 'male' gem?" I exclaimed.

She paused looking at me from up and down, then she took off her visor and looked distressed.

"Now that I think 'bout it...not since the Gem War." Garnet said.

"You don't know what happened?"

She shook her head, "Communications have been cut off to Homeworld since then"

"Garnet, we were all slaughtered like pigs"

Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "What? Why…?"

"The Diamonds used us as front linemen where the least important go to die. Me and a handful of other 'male' gems were either skilled enough to survive and escape or remain too valuable to be used like that"

"But.." Garnet's eye's, specifically Ruby's eye, started to water "Rose would never-"

"Rose did what she could, but it wasn't enough. We were all on slaves under the Diamonds, you remember"

Garnet steeled herself and put back her visor on, they seemed a little more red than before. "How many are left?"

I shrugged, lowering my head, "I don't know. We were rare as it is."

Garnet nodded "A gem like that was one in a billion. Could you give a guess?"

I thought for a bit. "A little over a dozen."

"From the original thousand?"

I nodded grimly "Some of us were looked at as aliens. Any wrong action turned us into fugitives"

Garnet put a hand on my shoulder, "You'll rebuild. Your one of the strongest gems I know."

I smiled, Garnet's words filling me with warmth. She examined me again, this time more intently.

Garnet wasn't done. "Speakin' of strength.." she started.  
She thought for a bit, then she looked at me, then at Amber. The conversation and eating had escalated into a roughhousing fest, which led to a dog pile, with Amber at the bottom and Amethyst at the top. I heard Steven yell "Steven-bomb!" before leaping off the bedroom and on top of the dog pile. Not taking her eye's off Amber, Garnet pointed at her.

"I need to see how you fight and how strong you two are"

I frowned, "but-"

"Without the element of surprise" she said

I felt like arguing but I knew I couldn't, surprise has a massive impact on how a fight is determined. "Amber, come on, Garnet want a word with us"

She looked up, still smiling and giggling. Pearl groaned on top of her, who looked like she was forced into the pile.

"Awwww" she pouted. Amethyst turned into a lion and crushed Amber at the bottom. She clawed her way out of the dog pile, and walked towards me. She leaned forward and was breathing heavily. For around a minute, Garnet and I stood there silently, the only sounds were Amber's heavy breathing, Steven and Amethyst laughs, and Pearls screams, now that she was at the bottom.

I cleared my thought "Amber-?"

She cut me off by lifting a finger, like "hold on". She was still leaning over.

Amber straightened herself and looked at me and Garnet.

"What exactly does she want to talk about?" Amber asked

I looked nervously at Steven, Pearl, Amethyst. Who were still laughing, except for Pearl, on the dog pile. I didn't want them knowing what would happen. This was supposed to be a one-on-two training between us and Garnet. Or was it two-on-two? Whatever it is, I don't think Garnet wanted the other's getting in on the test.

"Elle veut nous tester" I said in french.

Amber raised an eyebrow and looked at Garnet and then back at me.

"Nous avons tout simplement les combattre , et presque gagné ." She complained.

I sighed "Voilà ce que je voulais dire , mais elle voulait voir nous battre sans nous avec le ' élément de surprise et ce qui ne"

She rolled her eyes "Beaux laisse juste en finir avec ça"

Garnet looked at both of us, with bewilderment "What are you saying?"

"Um, it's another human language. Why? Could you understand it?"

She blinked "No. As far as I know, none of us can."

Phew. Okay that's good. None of them knew French. Then again, we knew Latin, Spanish, German, Italian, Arabic, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Korean, Russian, Swedish, and Greek. They were bound not to know one of them. Which is a good thing. Some things need to be private and knowing 13 languages definitely helps with that. Hey, when you stranded on earth to wander the world for a few thousand years, you learn stuff. That includes languages.

"Did you tell her?" Garnet asked.

I nodded along with Amber, although she was a bit more enthusiastic than I was. Then again, she always is enthusiastic.

"I'm up for it" Amber said. "Where do we start?"

Garnet looked one last time at Amethyst, Pearl and Steven wistfully. It looked like she always did this whenever she left without telling them.

"Follow me" She said

We followed Garnet into the warp pad, which was bigger than most. We warped into the system. I forgot how long it was since I last used one of these. Earth was so small, it was so easy to get around. Especially when you're practically immortal and have a friend like…. _him_.

When the stream stopped, we were standing on a smaller warp pad with had its edges decorated. It might have looked beautiful at one point but time always wears out places like this. It looked very familiar for some reason or another. We stepped off the pad and followed Garnet up some stairs which lead to a short corridor way high up. The insignia of the Old Diamond Alliance above it. Blue, Pink, Yellow, and White. Moonlight seeped in through the entrance of the tiny corridor, with Garnet casting a giant shadow over the warp pad. When we finally came through the short corridor, it went from kinda familiar to I know exactly where we are. I turned to Amber and she had the same look. Everything was so nostalgic. The tiered seating organized in columns and rows sprawled below us. The dust covered stone floor. The giant chunk, which was more than half, of the structure was destroyed and fallen off.

"Do you know where this is?" Garnet asked.

We looked at each other, smiling and remembering "Yes"

"Did you two fight here?"

"Not exactly," I said "We trained here"

Garnet nodded, she knew the Sky Arena's history as well as its usefulness. The place is ancient, sure, definitely older than any of us, but it's mechanics still work.

"Pearl and Rose trained here" Garnet said. "It's where P learned the art of swordfighting"

Amber and I quickly exchanged embarrassed glances, like when you did something bad in class with another person and you both keep it a secret from your teacher. Garnet saw us and instant was on to us. I knew that it would happen though, so I gave Garnet a look like _I'll tell you later_. She nodded and readjusted her visor "You ready?"

Amber grinned. Here comes the one-liner. "You're asking me when I should be asking you."

Garnet smiled summoned her gauntlets. I summoned my sword and shield and Amber summoned her knives. Regardless of what I had gestured, Garnet looked at both of us suspiciously. As if she wanted to know what other secrets we held from them. All three of us had a silent countdown, which added to the symbolic meaningfulness of the scenario. Not to mention major theatrics.

 _3…_

 _2…_

 _1…_

We all blasted toward each other simultaneously. Amber leaped to the left and I went down center, Amber running slower to stay behind me. I already knew what she was planning, but Garnet's skill and strength meant that we needed to be creative and flexible with these plans and maneuvers. I hopped up and tried hitting her with my sword hilt, but Garnet grabbed my arm. It was a horribly slow hit, she had all the time in the world. She cracked her neck and threw me away and I landed on my feet immediately charging again. Garnet ducked as Amber leaped toward her. Garnet hardly reacted with my charge and showed me what fast hit was. I barely had time to block it with my shield. I was completely fine but the force from the punch threw me down hard. Quickly I rolled away from Garnet before she could hit me again. I tried to pick myself up but I had trouble, I was not expecting a hit that hard. However, I wasn't trying to take her down. Just distract her.

Like a lion on the prowl, Amber jumped on Garnet's back. While she was occupied, I struggled to my feet rushing toward Garnet. Amber let go of Garnet and leaped, slamming into her back. I dove right into Garnet's legs and she fell forward face-planting the ground. Garnet rolled over and I quickly pinned her down with my sword. Amber stood in front of me pinning down Garnet's arms. The fusion looked surprised. We said nothing. The only sound was the sound of our breath echoing around the arena in the night air.

I was about to say something witty when a ball of something slammed into my shield and threw me from Garnet. Amber yelped as the barely managed to save herself from the flying Pearl and her spear gunned straight to her. Before I could react, I found myself laying down with a foot on my chest. Amethyst grinned as she stood above me.

"Mind if we ruin your party?" she said, she leaned in and whispered into my ear "Get ready for a right rumble"

I saw her grip tighten on her whip, good. That's my opening.

I grinned and said "I'm always ready"

I twisted my sword around and tangled my blade with Amethyst's whip. I yanked my arm and she fell to the ground. Amber had shape shifted and had flown a few dozen yards from the two gems before changing to normal. We charged at the same time, once more. Amethyst was still getting up when I rammed her to the ground. I hit her with so much force she tumbled across the arena floor. I jumped a few meters in the air and attempted to hit Pearl's body. She side jumped and I ended up slamming the flat of my blade on the ground. After a bit, I noticed Amber was glowing. I knew what she was up to. I focused on the fight and using my instincts and skills. I felt my gem start to glow. We both glowed with the light from our gemstones and when the lighting faded, we wore our battle armor. Mine being a green-blue cloak pinned to me by my gem, which was on top of my shirt, and shoulder guards, along with a chest plate, arm guards, and knee guards over my pants. Amber wore a chest plate with a cloak strapped to it and pinned by shoulder guards as well. But she didn't have her gem as an extra pin. Her arms guards changed and became more armored and aggressive looking. She had a battle skirt and armor from her knees down over her pants. This transition all happened while we were fighting.

Garnet had gotten back to her feet and started fighting. She punched my shoulder and I tumbled and flew. I slammed into Amber who was fighting Pearl. I stood up and helped up Amber and we decided to fight together tightly. Pearl triggered the arena's mechanisms and we saw the fog rolling in.

 _ **(Author's Note: Cheers, if you get the reference)**_

"Back to back!" I ordered.

We stood back to back and watched for movement. I knew it would be unlikely to _see_ anything because the fog was so thick. However, it was a late, quiet night. So I _listened_ for movement. I heard Amethyst snicker to my right. Heavy footsteps to my left. Very light, but quick steps behind me. Someone was rushing behind me.

"Amber?"

"I got it"

She struck something. I heard Pearl's voice yelp, then stumbling. The fog slightly faded enough so I caught a glimpse of two figures, excluding Pearl, circling around us. Then, as quickly as it wavered, the fog thickened again. The footsteps and snickering continued. My mind put the two together to calculate where they were. The footsteps became louder and closer. Amber shook and gripped her knives.

"Aqua?"

"Not yet..."

The footsteps got dangerously close and heavy. Amethyst's snickers turned into full blown laugh.

I felt Amber start to panic behind me.

"Aquamarine!"

"Now! On your 2 o'clock!" I yelled

Amber panicked and, instead of kicking and punching, she thrusted her blade forward and I heard Amethyst yelp. I turned to see Amber with her knife sticking out of Amethyst's body. That wasn't what would change everything.

The thing that changed everything is that the blade was sprouting from the dead center of Amethyst's chest.

 _ **(I was SO. DAMN. TEMPTED. To end the chapter here. But I'm not**_ **that** _ **much of a jerk...OR AM I?)**_

Amethyst dropped her whip and looked at the metal sprouting from her chest, her eyes widened with shock that I have never seen. Amber let go of her knives. One clattered on the ground, the other stood in Amethyst's chest. As she backed up, Amethyst stared at Amber in shock. That shock turned into a murderous look, a look I've seen only once before.

It is here where it starts.

The fever.

The rage.

That turns good people cruel.

Amethyst tried to say something but she fell back started to glow.

Instead of a shattered gemstone on the ground, an amethyst, perfectly untouched laid next to Amber's knife. Amber's face went through a series of expressions. Relief, Sadness, Disbelief, Fear, to name a few. She on the verge of tears as she looked at the gem and her blade fall to the ground. Garnet was in front of me ready to strike, but she saw at the amethyst laying on the floor. She looked slightly shocked and readjusted her visor. Meanwhile Amber stepped back in horror. Her blade on the floor next to the amethyst.

The fog cleared and Pearl ran over. She saw the amethyst and looked at Amber, who started to cry. Amber knew that she would come back quickly but I knew why she cried. She saw Amethyst's expression of betrayal, of anger. Just a while ago they were rough housing like sisters. I saw that this one chance, the closest chance, Amber ever had of having a sister. Then, she almost killed her. The betrayal that Amethyst is feeling could create a rage that would make the Diamonds cower in fear.

Pearl looked at Amber in reassurance. "D-Don't worry, Amber, dear" she said nervously "She doesn't take long with her regeneration"

"That's not what I'm worried about" Amber muttered.

The gem on the ground glowed and lifted in the air. A figure solidified and was slowly lowered. The glowing died down and Amethyst stood before Amber. Her eyes flared with anger, and teeth were gritted. Fists were clenched, and her muscles tight. This was not Amethyst. This was not Amber's sister. Steven's sister. This was anger in it's purest form manifesting itself in Amethyst. Fury with the only target is the one who betrayed her and those who stand in her way.

She took a step forward. And another. Slowly. She reached in her gem and pulled out her whip and swung it against the ground scratching and sparking. She pulled out another whip and again struck the ground, more sparks flew.

"Amethyst..." Garnet warned.

Amethyst's eyes slowly turned to Garnet. The anger from her glare was enough to put holes in Garnet's head. After Amethyst jerked her gaze back on Amber, Garnet slowly got into a fighting position as she looked at Pearl in distress. Pearl slowly nodded. Pearl slowly and carefully reached for her gem and started to pull out her spear.

"Don't. Even. Think about it" Amethyst said, keeping her full rage directed on Amber.

Amethyst's breathing became heavy. It became heavier and heavier. Her scowl intensified. She yelled as loud as she could and swung both her whips at Amber. I ran in front of her and deflected one whip with my sword but the other hit my back and tore my cloak. The crystal spikes dug in my skin. Being a gem, I didn't bleed but I definitely felt it. I crumbled to the ground. In front of me Amethyst grumbled.

"You got in the way." She said, sympathy was completely absent.

This time, my anger stirred. I struggled to my feet but she swung her whip and tangled my shield arm and yanked. My body lurched forward and my shield flew and disappeared at her feet. My hand was still tangled and I tried to stand up, Amber tried to rushed to me but Amethyst yelled

"NO!" and she caught Amber's gut and yanked her down. Amber slammed on the ground with such force, the ancient stone cracked under the force.

"AMETHYST!" Garnet barked "STOP!"

I saw Amber on the ground. My full rage flared. I felt like I had adrenaline pumped through me. I forced myself to stand, I resisted Amethyst's attempts to slam me down me again. I gripped my sword and started to advance. She swung her whip. I used the force to pull her toward me. I kicked her midsection with all my might. She tumbled away. I ran over and pu my sword to her neck.

"Aquamarine!" Garnet pleaded  
I looked over and Amethyst took advantage. She grabbed my sword and yanked it out of my hands. She rolled over and stood up. She yelled and almost stabbed me with my own sword if it weren't for Garnet.

" _ **AMETHYST! THAT IS ENOUGH!"**_ She screamed.

Amethyst stopped, the look of rage clearing as she shook her head over and over again. She looked at the sword in her hands, how I was at the killing end of it. Then she saw Amber on the ground, groaning, tangled in Amethyst's whip. Amethyst dropped the sword and backed up, looking at the carnage she caused. She started to back up faster. She turned around and broke into a run. She ran up the stairs faster than I could've. Then she ran out the exit and disappeared.

"Amethyst!" Pearl yelled.

She rushed up the stairs and followed her. Garnet was about to follow when she paused and turned toward me and Amber.

"Go!" I said "I'll take care of Amber. Just make sure you don't lose Amethyst!"

Garnet nodded reluctantly and ran to follow Pearl.

I just laid there, shocked on what I witnessed. I got up and saw ran to Amber's side. She was still tangled in the whip and she was still sobbing. I untangled her and sat her up. I picked Amber up and she wrapped her arms around my neck. Amethyst had hit her so hard, her armor split and tore the sweater under. Her cloak was torn badly and mine was as well. Tears ran down her face. I carried her over up the stairs and into the exit. I was in the middle of the small corridor when she asked me to set her down. I sat her down and she sat next to the wall weeping and sobbing. I sat down next to her and put my arms around her.

"Hey, it's not your fault" I said "You panicked"

She sobbed harder looking at me, her eyes were red and her face was streaked with tears.

"Yes it is" she sobbed.

I put my hand on her face, she looked at me. Her orange eyes were so pretty. I would've been calm and I was until my hand started steaming. Oh no. I wasn't the one who needed to calm her down.

"You're doing the thing again"

She sniffed. "Really?"

I held her left forearm and checked her gem. On the upper part of the gem, a red color was being mixed into the rest. It was glowing and flicker like it was on fire. Her hand started to steam and smoke. I don't know what to do! Amber said she could get this under control herself!

"Amber, concentrate." I encouraged "You can handle this"

She closed her eyes and breathed in and out. It didn't work. The red swirl was almost halfway down her gem. I put my hands on her cheeks, they started steaming on contact.

"Please...please...focus" I pleaded, panic creeping in my voice.

She started crying again. This time out of frustration. Though there was sadness in the tears

"I can't" her voice had a frustrated tone to it. "I can't I can't I can't I CAN'T!"

"Amber..."

The her gem was almost completely red. Her color was changing to red and her irises had a hint of red lines in them. The air around her started heating up rapidly. The panic of losing Amber overtook me. I had not fought with Amber for 10 thousand years just to give up now.

"Amber, please! NOT NOW!" I screamed.

I don't even know how it happened, but we fused

 _ **TURQIOUSE**_

The fire that filled my heart of old  
Gave luster while it burned;  
Now only ashes gray and cold  
Are in its silence urned.


	6. Chapter VI

_**Chapter VI**_

 _ **DANBURITE**_

Danburite. That is the first word that came into my mind. I had no idea where I was. I was just standing about and wondering who I was and why I was there. Suddenly knowledge flooded my mind. Like flashing colors in a video. I knew what certain things where and certain places. The very first thing, though, was my name. My vision was blurry and red, so I only saw the warp pad that was before me. It was the only thing I could see. Everything else was shrouded in shadows. It was like if a spotlight was there, shining on a stage to show and force focus on one thing. I knew there were other things around me. I could feel it, but the only thing my eyes confirmed were real was the warp pad. Now this next part is very weird and I SWEAR I'm not insane.

 _Go to the pad_ a voice said in my head.

"Who are you?" I said, aloud.

 _I am you,_ it said, _and you can talk to me with your mind, because that's where I am._

 _Really?_ , I thought

 _Yes really_

 _Is there any other voices in my head I should know about?_

Nothing, just silence. Sure didn't make me feel insane at ALL.

 _Hello?,_ I prodded

 _No. Just me._

It was a male's voice. The voice's words echoed in my head. It wasn't exactly like a totally different person talking in my mind. It felt like I thought of the words but they came from nowhere, with no reasoning behind it. I was about to question the voice and object, but then I realized I just came into consciousness. Also what else was I going to do there? Sit there and think about my 1 minute old life? Well, I _could_ think about how I got there….

Nah, too boring.

Also YOLO.

 _ **(Ded meme. #dedmeme)**_

I walk on the warp pad. Throwing caution that doesn't exist to the wind. My combat boots stomped on the crystalline surface. I knew how warp pads worked, but I didn't know where to go. The Voice spoke up for me.

 _Let's go home._ The voice said.

Suddenly, the warp pad activated and a stream of light surrounded me. The warp stream lifted me up and I soared through the light. I was like taking an elevator with no windows that traveled at light speed. When the warp stream started to fade, I prepared for hostile grounds. It's what my instincts told me at least. Literally in a flash, I landed on another warp pad and the stream disappeared.

The place i warped in was familiar but I had no idea where it was. Hmm…..Deja vu.

It was the inside of a house. Almost like a cabin. Nothing separating the roof from the ceilIng. You could see the wooden support beams for the roof. Behind me, was like the entrance to a cave, the warp pad was in the middle of the house half and the cave half. Instead of the cave going into a cavern, a door with five gems in a star shape was right behind me. The house in front of me was more of a giant room than a house. It consisted of a kitchen and a living room with a fireplace and with a couch next to the wall and staircase leading to a bedroom with no south wall, that's where the cave was. The door behind me opened and a Gem walked through. She was crimson red and had a visor and blocky hairdo ending at her gem looked extremely stressed even though her eyes hid behind a red tinted visor. She looked up and jumped when she saw me. The gem crouched and got into a fighting stance. Her arms glowed and transformed into thick gauntlets. I felt the rage coming from her. I mean I _literally_ felt heat coming from her. Jeez what did I do?

"Who are you?" She demanded.

"Woah, Woah! Calm down! My name...is Danburite" I said, holding my hands up innocently.

"Where did you come from?!"

"I-I don't know!"

"How do you not know?! Tell me! Are you a spy from Homeworld?!"

I hesitated. I didn't know. I felt like I was made in the Kindergarten here but I have a feeling that's not where I was from. The thought clouded my mind and I was unable to respond.

The Voice confirmed my doubts when it said, _You're from Homeworld, but you're not a spy_.

Huh. Why is it speaking up now?

"Yes" I said, without thinking. "But I'm-"

I never finished. The gem charged me and punched me harder than I ever would've guessed. I flew back and got thrown out through the window screen. The screen tore open and I slammed into and past a balcony rail. The rail flew apart where I slammed into it. I landed on a beach and I rolled in the sand, creating a deep trail where I was tumbling. I dragged to a stop and groaned. Where I stopped, there was a little crater with em in the center of it. I stood up, I was angry. I was just created and I had no idea who exactly I was, but I knew I didn't like getting blown out of a building and onto the sand. I climbed to my feet and saw the gem coming down on me. I jumped back and crouched down. My arms glowed and when the glow faded, my arms had heavily armored gauntlets with sharp knuckles. The gem-

 _Garnet_ , the Voice said. _Her name is Garnet._  
Garnet...ok. Garnet charged me and tried to sock my gut. I rolled sideways and kicked Garnet. She flew back and tumbled in the sand. When she stopped, she quickly got to her feet and shook off the blow. As she was recovering, I jumped forward and threw the hardest punch I could get at her face. She slammed back down in the sand. I picked her up and socked her chest. She flew high in the sky, I jumped up and closed my fists with each other. I slammed Garnet down like she was a volleyball and she hurled downward like a meteor rocketing toward the earth. Then she landed with a loud _SLAM_. I landed next the quite large crater she made on impact. I picked her up by her arm. Barely conscious and groaning lightly, she looked up at me from her broken visor. The spikes on the knuckles of my new gauntlets, which were blue green for whatever reason, had caused some serious damage. Garnet's face was badly cut and the left side of her midsection had a nasty blow, the cloth was torn and her shoulder guards were cracked. She wouldn't be fighting anytime soon. I started to talk to Garnet.

"Garnet, honey. Don't ever do that again." I said.

She coughed "How do you know my name?"

I didn't want to answer that question. I wasn't exactly ready to tell a complete stranger about a voice in my head. So I decided to mask it with humor

I rolled my eyes. "Have we calmed down? Can we talk without punching each other?"

She nodded weakly, I was kinda scared when I thought about what I just did this to this powerful a gem. I continued talking to get my mind off it.

"Which reminds me" I said "What exactly did I do that made you throw me into a sand?"

"You told me you're a spy from Homeworld" she muttered. She winced and gripped her gut. I didn't want to torture her, I just want to get information. I'll help her out in a bit.

"From Homeworld, yes, but I'm not a spy"

She coughed and looked at gauntlets.

"Are you...a-a fusion?" She asked "Y-y-you are powerful"

 _No,_ the Voice said in my head. _You're not._

Now everything the voice has said so far was right so I trusted it. But I was uncertain on this one.

 _You are not a fusion, Danburite, trust me_ the Voice said

"I'm flattered, MC Square, but i'm not a fusion" I said.

She looked disappointed. "Your a defect"

I took offense to that. Being called a defect wasn't something I took lightly to.

"I'm a what now?" I said quietly, my voice having a dangerous edge.

"Human's refer to it as 'male' but gems don't have genders-"

"I know that."

"So we call them 'Defects'" she murmured.

I squinted, bringing my face close to her's "Do me a solid, yeah? Call them something else"

She nodded weakly, then she passed out dangling in air, with me holding on to her arm. What the heck did I _do_? I just came into consciousness like an hour ago. I put her over my shoulder and walked up the stairs of the house I had just got punched out of. Probably her house, so I could understand the original panic, but not the uppercut-of-death anger a few seconds later. What I didn't get was that if this is her house, then what was that weird door she walked out of? And why did she looked so stressed? I put her down on the couch and flopped next to her. Her afro was like a damn pillow for her. I sighed and reclined on the sofa. The memory of the mystical looking door gnawed at my thoughts. I found myself staring at the door, wondering furiously what was behind it and why Garnet had walked out of it all stressed. The curiosity ravaged my mind and I was about to get up and find out what was behind it when two more gems and a human walked out. The human was just a kid…

 _The tall one is Pearl, the purple one is Amethyst, and the kid is Steven._ The voice said, echoing

 _Okay_. I thought _Anything else?_

Surprisingly I got a response.

 _Yes_ it said _Amethyst is a little fragile emotionally right now._

Wow, can this guy read people's thoughts? Anyway, they looked up and saw the giant hole in the window. Then looked back down at me and an unconscious Garnet. I raised my hand in polite greeting. The kid, Steven, I think, looked at me and smiled.

"New gem!" He said joyfully. He rushed over and sat next to me.

The purple one, Amethyst, tried to tell him something "Ste-"

She was cut off by the tall one, Pearl, who clamped her hand over her mouth. Pearl was staring at me terrified. I was shocked that Steven thought highly of me at first glance considering the giant hole in the wall and unconscious Garnet next to me. It didn't seem like he noticed. His eyes sparkled with curiosity and amazement as he examined me. I liked him instantly.

He looked back up at me "Where did you come from?"

"Uhhh, Homeworld" I answered nervously, fearing the response

The curious smile vanished and was replaced by a look of terror. He scrambled away from me. I sighed and looked down. He finally noticed Garnet and the hole in the wall and back up even more.

"Peeeearl! Aaaamethyst!" He cried

They pulled out their weapons. Now what happened next is pretty embarrassing but I am man enough to say it. They startled me so I tried to get up I tripped over the coffee table and landed face first on the floor. I scrambled to my feet and tried to summon my gauntlets. I tripped again over my own foot getting into a battle stance. I fell backwards and hit my head against the kitchen counter behind me.

"Oooh" I groaned.

Amethyst snickered. She seemed pretty fine for being "emotionally fragile". The voice in my head read my thoughts and said, _She's very good at burying her emotions, but are very easily uprooted. As I said, be cautious._

Hmmm... Fair enough. Amethyst slung her whip around my leg and dragged me toward her and Pearl.

"There's no way you beat Garnet" she snickered

"Shut it, you." I said

Pearl looked at me with fascination, but with caution as well. Like I was a lion chained to a wall. Steven hugged Amethyst's leg, looking at me in fear. For the first time, I was self-aware of what I was wearing. Golden-brown cargo pants, black army boots, a golden-brown t-shirt, which had a star on the center, and a long sleeve golden biker jacket, which was unzipped revealing the T-shirt. The sleeves were rolled up to my elbows which had gloves going up to them. the top of each of my arms had a slab of metal armoring with a star on each of them, my gems being on the bottom side of each. I don't know why the biker jacket, but I didn't pick my wardrobe.

Finally Pearl asked, "Did they send you with Peridot and Jasper?"

I looked up at her, giving my best bewilderment look. "Who the heck is that?"

She paused, "Sooo...you're...not hostile?"

"No, just because I'm from Homeworld doesn't mean I want to kill you."

Steven froze, he walked over and knelt next to me, I was happy. I didn't show it, but I was glad he wasn't scared of me.

"Are you a fusion?" He asked "Are you Aquamarine and Amber?"

"No" I said "Garnet asked me that"

They looked disappointed like Garnet did. This made me a bit annoyed. The two names sounded awfully familiar. It made me wonder…

"Who are Aquamarine and Amber?" I asked

All three of them looked at me. Like I was the reason everything bad happened.

"Oh come on! Don't give me that damn look! Garnet looked at me like that. I did absolutely nothing wrong, but you stare at me like I'm the guy who schemes against you with all his free time!"

Pearl sighed and knelt next to me, "Aquamarine and Amber were a pair of gems that had visited us a while ago. A few days after we met them, we did a training test" she looked at Amethyst nervously "A little...mishap occurred, and we haven't seen them since, we've been searching non stop for them"

Amethyst rubbed her arm looking at the ground, shame in her eyes. I struggled to my feet.

I brushed off myself and crossed my arms.

"So, why are these gems so important?" I asked.

The Voice in my head chuckled, although it said nothing. Pearl and Amethyst exchanged looks of embarrassment and nervousness. Amethyst looked at me.

"They kinda fought five of us to a standstill, almost winning" she said

"What?" I asked, "Like five v. two? Or is it 6 v. 2? Cause I'm pretty sure Garnet-"

Pearl cut me off "Together, they almost beat all five of us: Me, Amethyst, Garnet, Steven, and Connie"

I was about to ask who Connie was, then the Voice answered me.

 _Connie is a human, very close to Steven, highly skilled with a blade, rivaling Pearl._

 _Thanks for the tip._ I thought

 _No problem_.

I looked at Steven "Is this true?" I asked him. "Like completely? Every word?"

He nodded, "The gems don't lie."

"You don't think we're telling the truth about getting our collective butts kicked?" Amethyst said.

I paused. You know what? Yeah, why would you lie about something that embarrassing? I'm gonna decide to take their word for it.

"So how long have you been looking for them? If you guys are _the_ Crystal Gems and hadn't found them yet, it should've only been a day or so."

Amethyst and Pearl looked grim, like they wish what I said was true. It was at this moment, is when I truly knew what the two gems meant to these four. It was at that moment is when I decided to spend the life that I had no idea what to do with to help them. What they told me sealed my fate as a Crystal Gem.

"We've been searching for 3 weeks"


	7. Chapter VII

_**CHAPTER VII**_

 _ **DANBURITE**_

Two days had passed since my awkward and violent introduction. I had slept on the couch (which apparently Aquamarine slept on when he stayed here) which was surprisingly comfortable. The first day I was there was mostly Pearl and Garnet getting me up to date with the current crisis happening. After telling me about Malachite, Pearl decided to go with Amethyst and Steven to search for the missing gems. Garnet told me the rest, the way they met Aquamarine and Amber, the whole reason they were working so hard to find them, but she kept the circumstances of their disappearance very vague. Only that it was a training exercise gone horribly wrong. I guess it was that touchy of a subject. They had information about Homeworld and the plans they had for Earth. While explaining everything, you could tell Garnet blamed herself for their disappearance. I guess this was a touchy subject. I changed the topic and that was that for the day.

The next day, it was Garnet's turn to search for Aqua and Amber. Amethyst insisted on going. Pearl said that she needed a rest, which was completely true. Amethyst eyes had dark rims around them, her hair was a mess, which was saying something. Garnet refused to let Amethyst go, agreeing with Pearl in that Amethyst needed rest.

"Well, fine!" Amethyst said angrily "Go look for my sister without me!" She stormed off into her room, stomping her boots on the ground in anger as she left.

After she was gone, Garnet sighed, her visor appeared to have a blue tint to it for some reason. "That did not go well a' all" she said.

Pearl shook her head in disapproval "Not in the slightest."

"Will Amethyst be okay? She hasn't been herself. I'm worried about her" Steven said nervously. Poor kid. He was in the midst of all this madness. I could only imagine what it was like to go through something like this as a kid. The boy _was_ half of Rose Quartz. From what Garnet tells me, the two share compassion, pacifism, trust, leadership, kindness, and love so similar, its scary. The boy is probably much stronger than he looks, both physically and emotionally.

Pearl started to head over to the warp pad, followed by Garnet. "Amethyst is strong," Garnet said "I have confidence she'll be alright."

"Are you sure?" Pearl asked "She did seem more shaken up than usual"

Garnet nodded, not facing away from the warp pad. "I'm sure. We should all trust each other like that. I want to give her a little alone time as well. I know it's what I would want".

And with that they warped away, leaving me and Steven alone to do nothing.

An hour had passed and Steven and I had pulled out a puzzle with around 500 pieces. the completed picture was the character his favorite ice cream, Cookie Cat. We started on the floor and Steven and I worked cooperatively to start to solve it. It was completely silent and it was a bit awkward. I could literally hear the seconds passing, as the clock's second hand ticktock-ed it's way around the numbers. Almost like it was laughing in my face. As time went by, the clock's ticking started to drive me insane until I couldn't bare it. I fired up a conversation to keep my sanity in check.

"So how are these puzzles supposed to work? They aren't that hard at figuring out."

"Well they're like when you're trying to cook something," He said, putting another piece in it's obvious place in the picture. "You have everything you need, you have to put them in the right place in the right order."

 _Like the circumstances of my damn creation_ I thought, but I didn't say that.

"Kinda like how you don't understand how you got made." He said.

WHAT? How? Erm... Ooookay. I'll just let that slip. Keep talking, Danburite, keep talking.

"Yeah, I guess so, but it's like if I'm missing a piece. Nothing is going together quite right." I said. "It's all shrouded in mystery"

Steven looked up from his puzzle "Ohhh! I like mysteries!" He said enthusiastically, walking over the side of the stairs and completely forgetting about the puzzle. He opened the door and took out a box. He pulled a deerstalker and a bubble pipe from the box. "I'll be the detective!"

 _ **(How much you want to bet you googled both of those?)**_

I smiled, Steven always knew what just to say or act. He put on the hat and put the pipe in his mouth and blew a few bubbles "How do I look?" He asked.

"Like a true detective" I answered, smiling. "Where do you plan to look first Detective Steven?"

He pulled a magnifying glass from seemingly nowhere and put it up to his eye, enlarging it by a tenfold. Steven faced to the temple and pointed at the door.

"That way!" He slowly walked to the door, crouching slightly. i stood up and followed him, also crouching a bit. Steven faced the floor as he walked as if he were following a trail. He stopped at the door and looked up at it.

Suddenly the door glowed purple down the center. It split open and Steven was face-to-face with a wide eyed Amethyst, who was carrying a pile of junk in her arms.

"Erm...Hey there. Little man" She tried for a smile, but it was hard when Steven examined her closely with his magnifying glass. "What are you doing?"

I shushed her "He's looking for clues." I said quietly. I winked, gesturing for her to play along.

Steven blew more bubbles from his pipe. "This ma'am is not a suspect."

Amethyst smiled, which was nice to see after she decided to blow off some steam in her room. I was worried for her too, to be honest. I barely knew her, but I had an odd attraction to her. Not like " _oh, love at first sight"_ attraction, but like if she were my sister. I swear, it's like a sister.I should not have said ANYTHING. Great, now some of you probably ship us. I can see it now, _DANMETHYST._ Ugh...whatever.

"Suspect of what?" Amethyst snickered, playing along.

Steven squinted at her, acting suspicious "Thieftery"

I coughed "You mean _thievery_?"

"That's what I said, my old bean."

I rolled my eyes, smiling "Alright"

Amethyst dropped her stuff in the middle of the room and started playing with us. Everything went mad. We came up that Suspect #1, codenamed "Amethyst", had stolen the precious stones from the jewelry store and framed Suspect #3, codenamed "Garnet". Then we made a conspiracy that they were actually in cahoots. We laughed for a bit and both me and Amethyst sat down while Steven kept examining everything.

"So have you calmed down" I asked Amethyst.

She glared at me, this was definitely a sore spot right now. I was about to change the subject when she responded.

"Sorta." she said " Not gonna lie, still a bit miffed, but I don't got a reason to hold any beef"

I sighed. "Well, ya had me worried there for a bit, Purple, thought you would flake out on me and Steven"

Amethyst laughed, which filled me with relief. The woman could glare _nasty_ when she wanted to. "Nah, I would never do that to Steven. Little man's a riot."

"Damn right about that"

I noticed the pile of junk in the middle of the room and wondered what it was. I mean, I could _see_ what it was, but it looked like a normal heap of trash.

"Hey, uh" I gestured to the pile "What's in there?"

"Hmm? Oh the pile? Just some junk."

"From your room?"

Amethyst nodded stoically.

"If it's 'junk' from your room, it must be the abomination of the Earth."

She smiled "Awww, thanks! I try my hardest!"

I chuckled a bit "So, the real question is, how did you label the crap ' _junk_ '?"

Amethyst shrugged "I dunno how I started, but I was putting my room back into system."

I tilted my head, "Your landfill of a room has a system? How do you keep track of it?"

Amethyst scoffed "Oh easy. I find something that belongs in my room, try to make it 'clean' and go," She gestured an object from one spot to another " ' _This lives there now!_ ', then I just toss it to it's new home wherever it lands "

"Sounds hard to mess up" I said, trying not to laugh.

"That's what I thought, but Pearl somehow manages it."

I laughed for real, then I looked back down at the pile. Something caught my eye. I squinted to see it better. I stood up and walked over to the heap of trash.

"What is it?" Amethyst asked, snickering "See your sister in that heap?"

"Stop talking about yourself like that, sis'" I slapped back, not taking my eyes off the pile. I picked up a small cylinder about two inches long and a centimeter wide. I was made of metal and had a lime green tint to it. I sat back down and looked at it closely. Amethyst leaned in close to me and examined it with me.

"What is that thing" she asked.

 _It's a part for limb enhancers from Homeworld._ The Voice said. _This part is a finger, it is completely detached from the palm of the forearm limb enhancer and could form with the other fingers to make a screen which is uploaded to the HIVE, Homeworld Intelligence Verification Encyclopedia. A gem named Peridot has limb enhancers. I reality she is very short and small._

Huh. So this is likea part of a prosthetic limb for gems, is what it's telling me.

"It's a finger" I said "Part of limb enhancers from Homeworld."

Amethyst smiled nervously "He-he….like Peridot's….finger…"

"Exactly like that, from what Pearl describes it, you guys don't know it but Peridot does have limb enhancers"

Her expression went from confused to angry real quick "Is it broken?"

I was about to answer when the Voice told me to try and bend it, if it worked, It would bend like a paperclip. If it was broken., it would be stiff. I tried to bend it and it didn't budge.

I shook my head, "Nah, It's busted. Sorry. Didja want to use it-"

Amethyst angrily snatched the finger from my hand and crushed it into pieces with ease. She tossed the shards at her door and slumped down in her chair.

I held up my hands "Ooookay. What was that about?"

Amethyst had her face covered in her hair. "Nothing."

"You just crushed that poor finger into bits, you're obviously _not_ fine"

"You don't need to know" she said bitterly

"But I think I should if we're gonna be a team" I insisted

She looked up at me, then back down to see Steven. He had tired himself out and started sleeping on the floor, with every snore, bubbles came out of his fake pipe. We were in such deep conversation, we didn't even notice him fall asleep. Amethyst looked back up at me and gestured to him, her expression still withdrawn. I nodded and stood. I picked up Steven, not saying a word and placed him on the couch next to Amethyst. I took the pipe out of his mouth and seeing glass out of his hand and put it in the bo, then the box went in the stairs. I sat back down next to Amethyst.

I cleared my throat. "So? You were saying?"

Amethyst looked at me and stared at me with sadness and anger "Fine. I'll tell you, but you better not tell Pearl or Garnet."

"What about Steven?"

She paused and looked at him as he slept. Then she looked back at me, "Only if he asks"

I nodded "Unless you tell me otherwise, this is a beef between you and me."

Amethyst closed her eye's and exhaled, "I have an old grudge with Peridots, possibly this one in particular."

"Why?"

She shuffled in her seat, obviously uncomfortable. "When I was made in the Kindergarten, I didn't have other gems to tell me how I was made. Well, that's what other guys told me. They told me what they knew, but something was off y'know? Something wasn't right. One day, I met a Peridot from Homeworld, she told me I was a defect because of how late I came out of my hole."

"Did she tell you everything?"

Amethyst shook her head "No, but I heard Peridots work the Kindergartens."

"So you think she knows what she's talking about. That it's true about being a defect"

She nodded bitterly "Yeah."

We just sat there in silence for a few minutes. I didn't know what to say or do. Amethyst was like a sister to me, but I had no idea how to comfort her. Once again, the clock ticked the seconds away as I listened and listened, this time the tick-tock of the clock was accompanied by Steven's snoring. It was 7:47 PM and the sun was setting outside. I looked back down at Amethyst who was staring at the floor.

"Hey, at least you let it out." I said reassuringly.

Amethyst smiled appreciatively "Thanks, homie, I owe you a solid."

"No prob, sis'. I'm here to help"

The warp pad activated and the stream filled the room with light. Both me and Amethyst watched in anticipation if the stream would fade and have the two lost gems accompanying Pearl and Garnet. When the stream faded, only a grim Garnet and Pearl emerged from it. Pearl seemed surprised that Amethyst was here. Garnet, on the other hand, looked more relieved than surprised. She gave me a look of gratitude before stepping off the pad.

"Any luck?" I asked hopefully.

Pearl shook her head "No, but we might have a lead on finding Peridot."

Amethyst shot up at the mention of Peridot's name. "What is it? Come on! Spill, P'!"

Garnet stepped in front of Amethyst, putting her hands on her shoulders "Amethyst we all apparently have had a long day." She said, gesturing to Steven, who snored loudly. "We should all sleep on it"

Amethyst looked like she wanted to argue. Instead she sighed and smiled wearily "Sure thing, G-Squad. And it has been quite the long day"

Then she bolted to her room and quickly closed it. Pearl turned back to me and gave me look like, _what did you do to her?_. Then she saw the pile of trash and exhaled exasperatedly.

"Amethyst!" Pearl yelled as she stomped over to the temple door "Oh, why do I bother with that slob?"

Garnet chuckled, taking off her visor, revealing three eyes. Not going to lie, it caught me off guard. "Goodnight Danburite, and thanks for talking to Amethyst."

I was still a bit stunned as she walked into her room. "No….problem…."

Then the door closed and left me in the room with Detective Steven snoring on the couch


	8. Chapter VIII

_**CHAPTER VIII**_

 _ **DANBURITE**_

As it turns out, I'M LAZY! I happened to sleep until 10:00 the day after my little talk with Amethyst. I woke up to Amethyst hounding on some waffles and pancakes, while Steven ate his breakfast calmly. He was not as energetic as Amethyst, or quite energetic at all. In fact, he looked a bit stressed, if anything. Not gonna lie, it caught me a bit off guard to see Steven stressed

 _Pressure breaks things_ The Voice said _Even people, Remember that_.

True. But this is the thing, Steven may appear stressed, but let's be honest, Garnet could look calm while everything burns down around her. It makes me laugh sometimes when I think about it. Ruby's internal screams while Sapphire listens. Ugh. I could only imagine what it would be like to fuse with someone else

Anyways, we finished eating breakfast and Pearl walked in the room. Amethyst had been quiet the entire time if you exclude the noises she made while eating. I guess she was anticipating the information on Peridot. It _was_ something she was obviously anxious for.

Amethyst saw Pearl walking by. "Hey, P'!" She called.

Pearl turned toward us "Yes, Amethyst?"

Amethyst burped, "What were you gonna say 'bout Peridot?"

I KNEW IT! She _was_ thinking about it! I knew I was smart!

Pearl shuffled uncomfortably "Well, we aren't positively sure" she said, "But we think we have an approximate location of where her escape pod is."

Amethyst tilted her head "Say what? I thought it was about findin' the green dorito?"

"It is," Pearl said, sounding more optimistic than usual "The pod's technology just might be enough to locate her!"

I stood up "Woah, woah, woah. What do you mean 'Just might'?"

Pearl looked at the floor, thinking intently "If I could just be able to wire the warp pad with the escape pod and reverse engineer the pod's location interface…"

Amethyst laughed, which was good to hear. "You're a riot, Wonder Nerd!"

Pearl looked up, shooting Amethyst an annoyed look before taking a seat at the table. After a little talking on the circumstances of how they even came about this information, Garnet walked in. She looked tense. Well. Tense for Garnet anyway. I was the only one to stop talking and watched Garnet walk toward the table. Honestly, I would've kept talking if Garnet took her eyes off me for a second. Visor. Whatever.

Garnet walked over and stood next to Pearl, still not taking her damn gaze off me. Finally, she looked at Pearl, who was in deep conversation with Amethyst while Steven happily ate another breakfast bagel. Seriously where does that kid put all that food? When Pearl didn't respond, Garnet finally nudged her. Pearl stopped and looked up at Garnet, who gestured to me. Pearl glanced at me then back at Garnet. It was like a silent conversation and Pearl's face took a nervous glance at Amethyst, who was looking suspiciously at the two.

"Danburite..."

I raised an eyebrow, "Yes?"

Pearl wouldn't meet my eyes "Me and Garnet have been talking...and," She glanced once more. "We need to see your skill-"

Amethyst shot up out of her chair, instantly protesting "NO!" She screamed "Don't you remember what happened last time?!"

Garnet leaned forward "Of course we remember, but we can't let us cloud our judgement"

"What if something happens?" Amethyst said. "What if Danburite-"

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't dissapear, not matter what happens"

Amethyst glared at me, that glare she gave me last chapt-, I mean yesterday. "You don't know what happened. You don't know what I did"

Now Amethyst says lots, but this wasn't something normal. This whole argument on whether or not I would be "tested" isn't normal, but what she said echoed in my mind.

" _You don't know what I did"_

"What I did?" What did she do? I almost asked about it until Pearl continued. This time with more confidence and attitude.

"Amethyst, we have seen Danburite in combat, but it was when we first met him. As much as I don't want to do it, we need to see the limits of Danburite. What happened to...Aquamarine and Amber was a freak accident and bound never to happen again!"

"You don't know that!" Amethyst shot back.

Pearl crossed her arms "It wouldn't happen if _you_ didn't-"

"Pearl!" Garnet and Steven protested together.

Pearl flinched looking at Steven a bit surprised. She looked down in shame and backed away from the table.

"You two have been fighting so much for three weeks!' Steven protested "Crystal Gems aren't supposed to fight each other! We're a team! You two haven't even asked Danburite if he's alright with it or not!"

Both Amethyst and Pearl looked shameful, not meeting Steven's gaze. Wow.

I faced Garnet, who looked at me as well, and mouthed _Is he always like this?_

Garnet nodded grimly and signaled that he had been acting like this for the past 3 weeks. Wow, that would explain why he looked so stressed. His playful and optimistic personality seemed to cover that up nicely though.

 _He needs a break,_ I mouthed.

Garnet nodded and readjusted her visor. The others were silent, Steven looking at his plate with an agitated look.

"Hey….uh….Hey, Steven. You want to take a break while I get my butt kicked?"

He sat up and looked at me, a weak smile tugged at his lips "That sound nice"

Amethyst put her arm around Steven, a hopeful smile on her face. "Yeah you deserve one. You've been working so hard since Malachite"

"Everyone needs some _chille tid_ every now and then" Garnet said, raising her hands innocently.

I turned toward Pearl, waiting for her approval, but she didn't look as optimistic as the rest. "I don't know, Garnet, everything could be awful without Steven present"

I tilted my head in disbelief, "Pearl. You of all people here should know and recognize the labours of hard work and dedication and how valuable and healthy something like a timeout would be"

Pearl took a second to process that, then she nodded "You're right, we've been working hard on the physical tasks, but Steven has kept us going for weeks now. He deserves some time away."

Garnet walked forward "Then it's settled, Steven get's a break while we test Danburite"

I decided to walk Steven over to the Big Donut. The walk was surprisingly peaceful. Steven was telling me where everything was and what certain buildings were and commentating on some objects, giving me random trivia and stories. The sun was high in the sky with the clouds hovering over the town. The Citywalk had few people on it considering it was midday. The ocean's waves seemed to be calm, though I've been wrong before. When we walked up to the Big Donut, a convertible car sped down Thayer Street and stopped right next to the Big Donut. Three teenagers walked toward us. Two boys and one girl. The girl was a little tall with a brown complexion, she wore ring earrings, a scarlet and beige short-shirt with a black top under it, teal jeans and scarlet shoes. The one of the boys had dark brown hair, and brown-coral skin. He wore a pair of sunglasses, an overly large red button-up shirt with the cuffs unbuttoned, a white shirt with a lightning bolt design, slim-fit jeans, and blue sneakers. The other boy pale had light blonde hair styled into a point, ice blue eyes, and a long, angular face. He wore a light blue hoodie, orange phat pants which were extremely loose, and bright green tennis shoes They were talking with each other and laughing. One of them spotted Steven and told the others, they all hurried over to us.

Steven smiled with excitement. "It's the Cool Kids!"

Did I hear that correctly? Cool Kids? "Who?" I asked.

"They're some friends I met with Lars" He explained.

"You Steven!" The boy in the sunglasses said "How are ya…" He paused when he glanced at me "...doing?..."

I raised my hand in greeting, trying for a smile, "Hiya. Name's Danburite."

"Wow. Your big" the girl said.

I tilted my head "I beg your pardon?"

"I think she means buff" The pale boy said nervously.

"Oh. Why thank you…"

"Jenny, " she answered "Nice to meet 'cha Danburite"

I turned to the boys "And your name's are…"

"They call me Sour Cream" the pale one said, still looking nervous. Was I intimidating these teens? Nah. I'm not _that_ scary, am I?

"Buck." the boy in sunglasses said "Buck Dewey"

Buck was still sizing me up when he asked "What are you doing here with Steven?"

"He's dropping me off at the Big Donut while he does some Gem business."

Jenny's face lit up and she looked at Steven, "How about you come with us? After this we're gonna go for a joy ride!"

 _ **(Roll credits!)**_

"You should come with!" Jenny suggested estatically.

"I dunno," Steven said. Then he looked up at me. "Can I"

I shrugged my shoulders "Well I don't see why not."

"Awesome, man" Buck said "Thanks."

"No prob, Bucky."

Jenny picked up Steven and put him on his shoulders. "Yeah! We'll be sure to bring him back by nighttime!"

"Whenever's fine, just make sure he has fun!" I said.

Sour Cream looked up at me, _still_ looking nervous. "Thanks, Dan"

Dan? That's a new one. I keep that one memorized. I raised my hands in farewell as they walked over to Steven to the car. So much for getting donuts.

When I walked back they were all waiting for me at the stairs to the patio on the house. Garnet was leaning on the stairs her arms folded and she was looking at the ocean from her position. Amethyst was sitting on the stairs and had her chin resting on her hands. Both Garnet and Amethyst looked bored. Pearl was pacing back and forth anxiously, two scabbards with swords in them were on her waist. When I stood in front of them, I put my hands together.

"Okay so, how is this gonna happen?"

Garnet shrugged "I dunno, this is a test of skill. So we might go one by one"

I scratched my head. Even though Garnet just told me, I had no idea how this went. Was I supposed to do something?

The Voice spoke in my mind, Just get into a face them and get ready, it said.  
Oookay. I turned toward the three Gems "Who's first?"

Pearl looked up and approached me, unsheathing the two swords. As she walked over, she threw one to me. I caught it in my right hand.  
"First, I will test your skills with a sword" Pearl said. "Are you ready?"

I was about to protest that I had no idea how to use a sword but she pointed her sword at me and charged. Great. Just fight using your instincts. Pearl thrusted her sword at me, I did the same out of instinct. Hmmmm. Odd coincidence. She tried to parry but I parried at the same time. To gain space, I jumped back. Only Pearl jumped back at the same time I did. I swear I was fighting on pure instinct. I jumped forward and whirled myself and swung my sword. The problem was that Pearl did the same exact thing. Our swords met and clanged. Because of our poor posture, we both stumbled back. Pearl looked at me a tad bit agitated.

"Stop doing that!" She whined.

I lowered my sword "Stop what?"

"Mirroring me!"

"Huh?"

"Just…attack with your own skill, please"

"I swear, I'm not coping you!"  
Whether she heard me or not, I don't know, but she charged. She twirled and attempted to stab me. I parried. We exchanged blows for a while. After a bit, i noticed i was doing the same moves Pearl was using at the same time she was. She jumped and was gonna try to trip me by slashing at my feet. I jumped and hit her face with my hilt. She flew down and landed face first on the ground. _What_? I took Pearl down with a weapon I didn't even know how to use? I shook it off as beginner's luck.

Before I could even gather my wits and recover, Garnet stepped before me and summoned her gauntlets. She smiled faintly.  
"My turn"

She yelled and charged. I dropped the sword and dove to the side. I rolled, got to my feet, and I summoned my spiked gauntlets and met her in the middle. We shoved each other back. She threw a punch and so did I. Our fists made a loud BAM as the met. Garnet yelled and tried to kick my gut but I grabbed her leg, spun, and threw her up, I jumped up slammed her down like a volleyball. I realized this was a move Garnet used usually. She even used it when I first fought her. I landed next to Garnet and she laid on the ground seemingly defeated. Suddenly she jumped up and fired her gauntlets like rockets.

Time slowed. I jumped over one of the fists but I jumped on the other slamming on the ground and pushing me up. I spun and tried slamming Garnet back down but she used the same maneuver I just did. Before we could make contact, I jumped up at the last second and uppercut her Shoryuken-style. She flew up and landed unconscious on the ground. Right next to Pearl.

Amethyst stared at me. "How did you…? I thought only Garnet knew some of those fance moves." She said.

I shrugged, putting my hands up innocently "I was just fighting on instinct"  
Amethyst thought for a bit, which mean this really interested her. Then her face lit up like a lightbulb.

"Danburite, have you ever used a whip before?"

"What kind of question is that?" I asked

"Humor me"

I had no idea why she wanted to know this, however I decided there was no harm in telling her.

"No" I said, "Obviously not."

"Okay, then this might work."

Amethyst pulled out two whips from her gem. She tossed me one of them. I caught it and looked at her in pure bewilderment.

"What am i supposed to do with this, dummy?"

Amethyst didn't say anything, she just looked at me, grinning like a madman. I realized what I was supposed to do with the whip. I looked at Amethyst with refusal.

"Nooo-no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no" I said, shaking my head

"Yesss-yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes" Amethyst replied, nodding

I glared at her with frustration. I did not want to fight with a whip. It wasn't my style, and Amethyst wanted to beat me. So she gave me her weapon knowing i wasn't good with it. She swung her whip. Well, then. Now I'm forced to fight with a whip. I jumped to the side and avoided Amethyst. I decided to fight on instinct again due to the fact that it helped me a lot with recent skirmishes. I instinctively swung my whip back and it went taut around something. I swung the whip again and threw it at Amethyst. It turned out it was Garnet's gauntlet i had slammed on the ground. Amethyst dodged it by sliding under it in a stylish way. She tried to catch the arm holding my whip. I lashed the whip around Amethyst's arms and slammed my whip downward generating a golden energy blast and nailed Amethyst. She flew back, her feet still on the ground. She struggled to keep herself standing. I thought she would be a little miffed if not annoyed, but no. This is Amethyst we're talking about here. She simply stood upright and grinned. I grabbed object after object and kept throwing them at Amethyst. I had no idea where this was coming from. I was just doing what felt right. Anyways, Amethyst kept dodging whatever I threw. I decided to go all out. I faked out grabbing an object with the whip and lashed the whip at Amethyst. The whip went taut around her leg and I yanked her upward. Quickly I turned to a giant boulder behind me, summoned my gauntlet, and threw it up. I jumped up and latched my whip around the boulder. At this point Amethyst had landed and was struggling to get back to her feet. I threw the boulder at her and yelled, "DESTROY!"

The boulder slammed into Amethyst, but instead of crushing her as I planned but instead knocked her back a good distance. She laid on the ground defeated. Wow, another one. I never would've called this. Luck must be heads over heels with me. I walked over and turned her over. She was half-conscious. I helped her stand and walk over to the stairs to the house. Amethyst sat on the stairs exhausted. She looked up at me and gave me a drunken grin.

"Hey bro….I figured something out." She said

"Oh?" I said "And what's that?"

She laughed "You don't know yet? You have …a special …power thing"

I winced "Power?"

"Yeah. When you throw down you can copy people"

I stared at her shocked "You mean….you think….I mimic a person's fighting style?"

"Yeah dude….what you said"

"Me?"

"Duh, it's why you beat me…and stuff" she collapsed on the stairway and started snoring.


	9. Chapter IX

_**CHAPTER IX**_

 _DANBURITE_

A few hours had passed since my revelation that I had the power to mimic someones "Dance moves" in battle. I helped Garnet, Pearl and Amethyst to their feet and they left inside their rooms in the Temple. It left me to snoop- I mean examine the house alone by myself. Maybe get to know these guys a little better.

I never really got the chance to look at the place closely so this was a good time to do so. The house is a considerable-sized structure with one large interior room and an upper level. The upper level is Steven's bedroom while the main interior has a lounge with a fireplace and a kitchen/bar thing. I don't really know what to call it. The door to the bathroom is in the back left, past the fireplace, while the bathroom itself is built directly below Steven's bedroom. Outside is a balcony with some stationary seats and an umbrella to cover the hammock under it. The far side of the house's interior opens into the entrance to the Crystal Temple. The Temple Gate, Garnet called it. As I looked at it, it looked less like a cave as I first thought and more like a foyer. Just outside the Temple Gate was the Warp Pad. Hanging inside, above the door, is a picture of Steven's mom, Rose Quartz.

The picture made me think what Rose would have been like. Both as a leader and a companion. I was only told her personality by Pearl and Garnet, but I felt like I didn't know her at all, especially when I looked at the picture

Suddenly the Crystal Gate opened and Amethyst walked through, stretching and yawning. She opened her eyes to see me standing in the middle of the room and laughed.

"What are you doing just standing there, dork?" Amethyst said.

I shrugged, "Just taking in my surroundings, what are you doing, dummy?"

She snickered and walked toward the door "Nothing, just gonna go chill outside on my hammock"

I raised an eyebrow "A random couch in your landfill wouldn't do?"

Amethyst belly-laughed "Nah. It's not the same, y'know?"

"I gotcha."

She snickered some more before walking outside and slumping on the hammock, crossing her feet and putting her hands behind her head. I exhaled and continued examining the room. After a few minutes, Pearl and Garnet walked out as well. Pearl stepped on the Warp Pad and left without a word, but Garnet sat down on the couch and just rested. I walked up to her and fired off a conversation regarding Rose. Nothing too important so I'm not gonna make you read it. This went on for half-an-hour until Pearl came back with both Earth and Homeworld tools respectively. She put down the tools by the Warp Pad and joined the conversation. I sat down while Pearl made tea. That was a bit odd. Garnet and I both decided to change the subject to Steven and stories regarding him rather than Rose. We both knew how Pearl got when Rose was on her mind. Again nothing important. Stuff you already know, so I'm not gonna make you read it. However, things got interesting when Amethyst burst into the room.

"Guys!" Amethyst exclaimed, "Look outside!"

Pearl looked distressed "What is it?!"

Amethyst grabbed Garnet and Pearl's arms "Just come and look!"

We all rushed outside and saw the the sky had a bright yellow-green tint to it. In the distance, past the woods of the City, there was a weird shape in yellow, it had an assortment of geometric figures that glowed brightly like a firework.

"It's a Homeworld Distress Flare!" Pearl said.

"And it's part-green!" Amethyst added.

"Then that would mean…"

"PERIDOT!" All four of us said in unison.

"What on earth is she thinking taking refuge this close to us?" Garnet wondered. Then she shrugged off her own question "Y'know what? Don' answer that. I'll ask her when we capture her first"

We jumped like Superman to where the general area was of the flare. The area were giant wheat fields and in one section, it had a symbol glowing green that was almost identical to the shape the flare made. Wow. Peridot was really desperate to get help. Can't wait to make fun of her for it. I was anxious to capture her for my own reasons. I wanted to know my role in the Homeworld Caste system. I wanted to know what I was supposed to be, if anything. When we arrived in the center of the symbol, the escape pod was floating in the air. There were holes in the ground and they were smoking caused by explosives. Black lines were all over the dirt. Who had Peridot been firing at?

"I knew it! That flare led us right to the escape pod!" Pearl exclaimed.

"What's going on here?!" Amethyst said.

"Help! Over here!" a voice said a few dozen yards away from us.

I turned to see Jenny, Sour Cream, and Buck Dewey in the floor, the three teens I had take care of Steven. Had Peridot been attacking them?! Oooooh, now she was gonna get it.

"We'll save you, humans!" Pearl said, throwing her spear through the pod "I can't believe it. Peridot's still inside." She pulled another spear from her gem.

Garnet walked forward, "She's probably weak from the landing. Don't hold back!" she ordered.

"Got it!" Amethyst said "With pleasure!"

Pearl threw another spear through the pod, for good measure, then Amethyst grabbed it with her whip. She wasn't going anywhere now! I summoned my battle gauntlets and started to approach the pod.

"Wait! No!" one of the teens said.

I stopped dead in my tracks. Why would they want…

Garnet stood next to Amethyst "You got a lotta nerve taking refuge here. Of all places!" She started to pull the pod down.

My mind started putting all the facts together. They're panicking on us wailing on the pod

Garnet continued pulling down the pod "But I don't know where you get off attacking defenseless humans in your deadbeat escape pod."

Steven is nowhere to be found here.

"And if you think you're safe here," Garnet continued, pulled the pod closer "well I got news for you. You lost!"

Steven is in there!

Garnet summoned her gauntlet "Stay off my planet!" She threw a fist at the pod. I jumped in front of it. I grabbed her gauntlet and yelled "Stop!"

"What are you doing!?" Garnet yelled.

"Steven's in there!"

Garnet glanced up at the pod through the window. Through it, you could see a frightened Steven holding his hands up to his face, preparing for the worst. Garnet's expression turned into a protective and guilty look. She pulled in the pod and cracked it on her knee. The thing split open like an egg. Green goo spilled everywhere, with Steven covered in it laying down on the floor.

"Steven!" Pearl and Amethyst exclaimed

Amethyst approached Steven "What were you doing?"

Pearl stared at him in disbelief "You found Peridot's escape pod and didn't come get us immediately!?" She sounded heartbroken, which was a bit overreaction to me.

"Dude, we almost wrecked you." Amethyst said, luckily laid back.

Garnet shook her head in disapproval "Steven, this is unacceptable. I'm very disappointed in you."

Woah, woah, woah. Pearl and Garnet are being _major_ hypocrites. His being here is a result of them wanting him to take a break!

Steven sighed, simply tired if anything "You're right…"

I stepped foward to defend his actions. Turns out, the teens helped me out. They ran up in front of Steven with me.

"Hey, cut him some slack!" Jenny said.

"It's not his fault!" Buck Dewey complained.

'Just let him be a DJ!" Sour Cream exclaimed stupidly

"Wha-?" Pearl murmered, confused. Whether it was about us defending him or Sour Cream's comment, I wasn't sure.

"We just wanted Steven to have some fun. I don't know what's going on with aliens trying to abduct him, and him being his own mom. But it sounds like he's got a lot on his mind." Sour Cream explained.

Jenny spoke up, "I'm sure whatever you're having him do is important, but everyone needs a break once in a while."

"He's just a kid." Buck added.

"And you three even came up with the idea of him taking a break. Getting some _chille tid_!" I finished off, quoting Garnet.

All three gems looked a bit guilty. Garnet looked like she was thinking.

Pearl closed her eyes then sighed "Maybe we have been a little hard on him." she admitted

Amethyst nodded and shrugged, a guilty smile "He _did_ break us out of space jail and everything"

Garnet's stern expression did not waver "Steven," she said sternly, then she smiled warmly "You're one clever, charming, boy"

Steven, looking astonished for not getting punished, smiled ecstatically, rushed up to Garnet and hugged her.

I sighed and flopped down on the floor out of exhuastion, remembering that we're gonna need to haul this thing back to the house.

"Hey Dan!" Jenny called

I turned to the groups to see everyone huddled together. Jenny was taking selfies on her phone, with the rest of the gems

"Come one! Jump in!" She said.

I smiled and got up, brushed myself off, and walked over, we took selfies until everyone was on the floor laughing with Sour Cream saying: "I'm invincible!" as he threw a pile of rocks on the damaged escape pod.

After an hour or so, the Cool Kids, Amethyst, and Pearl, and Steven took Jenny's car back to the City. Amethyst was sitting on the trunk, her feet resting on Steven's shoulders. Hmmm. I feel like that's from a viral music video Steven showed me or something.

"Come on, Danburite. Let's get these things back to the temple." Garnet said, walking over to the egg-scape pod. She picked up one half and shouldered it so one arm was free. She gestured me to pick up the other half. I walked over and picked up the top half.

"Oh, thing weighs a lot."

Garnet shrugged "It's Homeworld"

"Fair enough." I gazed across the fields. The woods weren't far from here, but the house sure was. "So we're just gonna haul it to the house? We can't exactly jump with these on our shoulders"

Garnet took off her visor grinning and winked "Who said we were gonna walk?"

I tilted my head in confusion "What do ya mean?"

"There's a Warp Pad hidden in the woods" she said.

"Ohhhh. I get ya"

She put her visor back on "We betta get walkin', and stop the talkin'"

I pointed at her, grinning "Ayyyyy."

From then on we started walking to the woods where were only two or three miles away. I was fine until Garnet decided to talk and fired this at me:

"So, Danburite, would you mind explaining why Steven was with the teens and not Lars and Sadie?" She asked.

My throat went dry, and I started panicking "Well...um...y'know….ummm"

She lowered her visor, revealing that her eyebrows were raised. "'Ummm'-what?"

"Well we were heading into the Big Donut, but the teens arrived at the same time we did, and they offered to take him. I didn't know this would happen."

"That's not why I'm upset" She said, correcting her visor and looking at the road ahead.

"Wait you're upset?"

"More miffed if anything" she replied, not meeting my eyes "I'm miffed because you disobeyed orders and you took action without my permission"

"Guilty as charged" I admitted "But I felt like you were just sending someone to take care of him rather than him getting a break. Those kids could probably provide more of a break than Lars and Sadie can in the Donut shop"

Garnet took a second to process that "That may be true, but we might have some problems if this continues."

I shrugged, which was hard to do with the thing on my shoulder "Probably won't happen again."

"Probably?"

"I can't lie, sometimes judgement can be clouded and others need to be the one to take charge"

She considered this and shrugged, although it didn't look like she had trouble with it. "I can understand that."

Then we walked in silence until we reached the woods. Garnet uncovered the warp pad and we teleported back into the house. Everyone else was there, save the Cool Kids. Pearl looked excited when she saw us with the pod. She left the table and grabbed the tools next to the Warp Pad. She immediately got to work on the bottom half of the pod.

"You're late!" Amethyst teased.

I crossed my arms "Well ex _cuse_ me, princess, _you_ weren't the one who hauled _that_ thing" I pointed at the pod "back to this place"

She waved her hand at me, with dismissal "Excuses, excuses"

I took that with a grain of salt and walked over to the table. We laughed and talked with Amethyst and Steven while Pearl worked on the pod. And that was the end of that disastrous joy ride.

 _ **(ROLL CREDITS DAMMIT)**_


	10. Chapter X

_**CHAPTER X**_

 _ **DANBURITE**_

I had tried to convince Amethyst to tell me what had happened. She had just slip that an incident had happened between her and Aquamarine and Amber before they went missing. I felt that she needed help about it. So i was persistent to find out.

"Amethyst just tell me, there harm, is there?" I said

"Please..." She pleaded "I don't want your help"

"But you need it!"

She turned and faced me tears in her eyes. Her lip quivered, half angry, half depressing.

"No, I don't!" She screamed

I put my hands on her shoulders. She sniffled and wiped her tears.  
"Listen Amethyst, I know this is hard. I know it's hurtful, but i need to know, I can't help if i don't know anything"  
She took a shaky breath, she threw my hands off her and sat down at the edge of the patio. She put her head on her knees and wrapped her arms around herself. I walked over and sat next to her.  
"Why do you talk with me?" She asked "Why do you think I'm a good person?"  
I almost laughed "Really? You're asking that question? Your birth is shrouded in a super dark mystery, so is mine. I technically know you better than the others.'"  
"No you," she agreed "because you wouldn't be talking to me if you did"  
"Yes I would, I care about you sis." I poured a bit of emotion in that last word.  
"Why? I'm just a mistake, a bad creation"  
"Hey, apparently so am I"  
"So? You're better than me. Yesterday told me that you literally match my skill"  
I scoffed, "Skill means nothing on the topic were talking about. It's character that matter's. You do know, I look up to you whenever I need to calm down"  
"When!?" Amethyst screamed "You've only been here for like six days!"  
"You'd be surprised how often you start to lose it when you have no idea who exactly you are and why you just gained consciousness."  
"Then how do you know know all this stuff about us and yourself?"  
I hesitated, I hadn't told anyone about the Voice. Why would I? If I told you that I had a voice in my head that only I could hear and it told me stuff about you and you didn't know me, would you think I'm crazy? I think so. But then again. This isn't you. This is Patrick-I mean Amethyst. I decided there was no harm in telling her.  
 _Do I tell her about you?_ I asked it.  
Nothing. My mind went blank for a second. I asked again, with a little more attitude.  
 _Hello_?  
 _Fine_ , It said.  
I turned to Amethyst. "I have this...voice…in my head"  
She looked up and raised an eyebrow "Voice?"  
"It kinda tells me everything I want to know at random times"  
Amethyst looked confused, like I wasn't as well "How do you have that?"  
I shrugged " I don't know, I'm as much in the dark as you. I just know it's there."  
She stared at the floor "Does it know about us?"  
"I'm pretty sure, it told me your names when I met you"  
"Does it know what I did?"  
"I don't know"  
"Ask it"  
I shuffled uncomfortably, I had never tested the knowledge of the Voice, but what was it gonna do? Give me a headache?  
 _What did Amethyst do before Aquamarine and Amber_ _went missing?  
_ Silence. I felt nervous. I didn't know what this thing was or what it could do. That headache started to sound a lot more painful than I thought.  
Instead it responded with worry. _Please don't make me tell you  
Do it  
_It paused, then it told me. The whole thing. Amber. Knives. Death at every corner. It was like a movie. When he finished, my face was tense. I looked at Amethyst, who started looking at the ground in remorse

"I guess it does" she muttered bitterly  
"You lost it" I said, shock still ruled my thoughts  
She turned and gestured to the stairs, like she was telling me to go away "Go ahead, leave"  
"Amber did…." I paused, what Amber did was her fault, not Amethyst's "…you had every right to be angry though"  
"She was like a sister to me. The best friend who didn't care about my stupid habits and mood. And now she's gone because of me" She slumped down on the patio.  
I put my hand on her shoulder "Then she's an idiot, because I was would never leave you if you lost your temper"  
She looked up and sniffled. I helped her up and she did something I didn't expect from someone as roughhouse as Amethyst. She hugged me. It was totally sisterly, but I felt like I was teaching her in a way. She was short so it was like Steven hugging me. Finally she let go and wiped her tears away and looked up at me.  
"Thanks, Dan. You're the best" she said and walked inside. I watched her until she walked through the temple gate  
I sighed and decided to walk around the beach. I found myself at the lighthouse above the house. I heard Ronaldo Frybo making a mess in the lighthouse with his conspiracy stuff. I tore down a section of a fence and sat down, my feet dangling over the cliff. I stared at the stature below my feet and the beach and seemingly endless ocean sprawled out before me. I thought for a bit about Aquamarine and Amber. Who they were, and if they're actually as great as everyone says they I wondered if they are even on the planet.  
 _You are the answer_ the Voice said  
...

Hold on….WHAT? The answer? I tried to ask it what it meant but it didn't reply. Great. TOTAL cliffhanger there! THANKS! What the hell did the Voice mean? 'I am the answer'. To what? Aqua and Amber? Malachite? THE DAMN MEANING OF LIFE? REAL SPECIFIC!

I admittedly would've thrown a tantrum out of frustration, but a voice stopped me. And It wasn't the stupid one in my head.

"Hey!" Someone said behind me said.  
I saw Steven running up to me. He had a smile on his face which put one on mine. That's what i liked about Steven, he always seemed so happy and optimistic. As a result he brought up everyone else's mood. The detective bit two days ago was a perfect example. He stopped and stood next to me.  
"What are you doing up here?" He asked  
"I dunno." I lied.

I totally didn't to, but this was something I needed to figure out alone. Also this "Answer" the voice was talking about was too cryptic to put into words, not to mention very vague. Although Steven didn't seem to notice. He snickered. I looked up at him closely. He had a weird expression on his face. He was either trying to conceal a smile, or he was gonna fart.  
"What's so funny?" I asked.  
"N-n-nothing" he said  
I raised an eyebrow, now he had me grinning, he was up to something. Steven put his hand on my cheek and said "Steven Tag!". He put his hand down and backed up and waited. I just sat there confused.  
"'Steven Tag?'"  
Steven belly-laughed "It's like normal tag but when I tag you, you have to shape shift into me."  
"Then tag you?"  
"Or other gems"  
"And you tagged me first?"  
He shrugged, still snickering and smiling. "I like to play games with you"  
I grinned "Then game on"  
I shape-shifted into Steven, leaped up, and chased after him. He turned and ran, he had short legs. That was the good news. The bad news, I also had a short legs because of my form. When i reached the bottom of the mountain, I saw Amethyst. She looked at me and grinned and turned to run. Too late. I tackled her and yelled "Steven Tag!". I got up and ran. I heard Amethyst shape shift and laugh. I ran inside of the of the house to hide. I hid behind the counter of the kitchen and I heard someone warp into the place. I immediately thought of Garnet so I tried to keep my mouth shut as she got closer. At the last second I tackled Garnet and yelled "Steven tag!"  
"Ow! Get off me!" She yelled, only it wasn't Garnet's voice.  
I quickly got up and shape shifted into my normal self. I looked down and looked at who I tackled. By the time I saw her she was standing up as well. Her eyes filled with panic and fear behind her green visor.  
"Peridot!" I yelled  
The little green slime-bucket looked around frantically, completely ignoring me.  
"Yo!" I yelled waving "! I'm right here, ya clod!  
Peridot looked at me more annoyed than worried.  
"You're the clod!" She retorted.  
I looked at her with mocking a shocked face. "Excuse me? You're the pile of lime Jell-0!"  
Again, Peridot ignored me and looked at the door nervously. Apparently she thought she heard footsteps. We just stood there, completely silent. What am I doing? We were looking for this snob and here she was. And was just standing there.  
"Ah the hell with it" I said, and tackled Peridot a second time. She yelped and fell to the ground with me. I quickly got up and grabbed her foot and started dragging her out of the house.  
"Hey! What are you doing?! They'll see us, you pebble?!" Peridot protested. I ignored her and kept dragging her out of the door. I saw Garnet, Amethyst, and surprisingly Pearl playing Steven Tag. They stopped dead in their tracks as I approached them. I threw Peridot in front of them, only it wasn't Peridot. It was her foot. Pearl shape shifted back to normal and looked it confused.  
"Uhhh. What is this supposed to be, Danburite?"  
"Huh?" I looked down at the green foot. "What happened?! She was just here!"  
 _ **(Oh here we go. The Pronoun Game! How about that?!)  
**_ "Who was just here?" Garnet asked.  
"Peridot!"  
I looked around frantically while the gems scrambled to their feet...frantically. I heard someone stumble behind me and I quickly turned. Peridot was trying to hop away on one foot. She had fallen and started using her finger-helicopter trick the gems told me about to get away. I ran toward her.  
"HEY!"

Peridot turned toward me. When she saw me she yelped and leaped up in the air as I lunged to tackle her a third time and the gems kept scrambling to catch her as well. She hovered higher and higher. When she realize that we were hopeless, she started laughing.  
"Hmmhmmhmm" she sneered "AAAHAHAHAHA!"  
"Peridot stop!" I yelled. I sounded like an deadbeat cop. She was high in the air, probably in reach.

The little schmuck laughed more "Oh so you clods could capture me? No thanks! You gems are a pushover! A pushover that's as dull as...erm...dirt!"

Peridot seemed satisfied with her insult. It wasn't too insulting, but it annoyed the crap out of me. I jumped up to try and catch Peridot. She yelped and flew high enough so I couldn't reach her.  
"HA! You missed" she taunted and flew off while we watched helplessly. The gems had been at my side for half of the time, but they weren't able to do anything either. I slumped down on a rock and looked down.  
"I'm sorry guys, I didn't know she could do that. I should've paid more attention."  
"Aw, com'on, ya golden goof!" Amethyst said encouragingly "None of us knew that! The green airhead would've escaped even if we were in your shoes...er... _boots_ ".

I slammed my fist down on the rock, chipping some parts off it and splitting it. "That's not what I mean."

Amethyst tried to say something, but she was cut off by Garnet.

"Danburite, what happened is not your fault, Peridot is entire levels of smarter than us. S' much I hate to say it."

I didn't meet her eyes "Still I had the little brat"

Pearl sat next to me carefully avoiding the split I had made. She sighed and faced the other gems.

"Why don't you two go with Steven and check the pod? I've wired it to the Warp System so if she uses it, we'll know exactly where she is."

"Will do" Garnet said.

Amethyst scoffed brushing her hair scornfully "Pshh. I hate it when you give orders. You get this look on your face when I don't do it right away."

Pearl glared at Amethyst, who grunted. "Yeah, there it is."

She turned and walked off with Garnet. When they were out of earshot Pearl started to thimble her fingers. Something she did when she got nervous. I looked at her.

"What?" I said "You gonna give me some cliche pep talk?"\

Pearl faced me, her sky blue eyes filled with sympathy.

"Not exactly." Pearl said. "I was just going to say something I experienced and compare it to you. I think it might help you out."

I looked at her with dispassion. "Pearl, that's exactly what a pep talk is"

"Oh, well, ummmm..." She started tapping her fingers together. I didn't want to make her feel bad or nervous. I already had enough of those myself.

I sighed "I'm fine. Honestly. I just need to let out some steam. You have no idea how much anger and frustration you get when you have no idea who you are."

Pearl exhaled in relief "Okay, then"

I felt like there's was something she didn't want to tell me. I got a mischievous feeling inside me. One that would do anything to get her to tell me.

"Pearl" I said.

She looked at me. Relief still in her eyes. "Yes, Danburite?"

I grinned "Spill"

Pearl frowned, like she didn't know what I was talking about "I beg your pardon?"

I rolled my eyes. She was playing dumb. I saw the panic buried under a mask of cluelessness.  
"Your know what I'm talking 'bout, P'. You were gonna make an analogy with me. Spill."

Pearl sighed with exasperation, a series of emotions on her face "This is a Peridot that worked on this Kindergarten. I have worked so hard to protect this world from harm from Homeworld, and her this twerp comes along and sells us out to Homeworld, brings an entire _warship_ , and _still_ comes back to mess up this planet!"

I felt like I wasn't supposed to hear that, it was too much. Too much to hear.

"Hey, you're okay?" I asked.  
Pearl nodded, not meeting my eyes. "Just thinking about other things"

"Like what?"

"Aquamarine and Amber's whereabouts"

Ugh, back to the 'Aqua and Amber missing' junk. What the heck was so important about these two gems that we needed to stop looking for an ultra powerful gem to find? Were they connected in some way? As i was thinking this, Garnet and Amethyst walked out with Steven. Garnet looked tense along with Amethyst. Amethyst looked somewhat…ashamed. Something was up. Steven was...well... Steven. It was obvious something bothered him, but he looked loads more optimistic than the other three gloomy bums.  
"Where did Peridot go?" Pearl asked Amethyst. Amethyst looked surprised. So was I. Why was she asking, out all the people.

"We don't know yet" she replied "We only know she has one foot."  
Steven tilted his head, a look of confusion washed over him "Huh?"  
I kicked Peridot's limp foot over and Steven stared at it for a second then looked up smiling.  
"It's okay," he said "It's a STEP closer to catching her!"  
I chuckled, even though I was a bit down at the moment, he didn't disappoint in making me smile.  
"Steven Quartz Universe" I said "You're a riot"  
He put his fists on his waist Superman style and looked at everyone confidently, "Yes i am"  
Garnet stepped forward, her arms crossed, and cleared her throat.  
"Danburite, Pearl" she said "I know where Peridot might be, since Amethyst can't read a map"  
Pearl jumped up, she made a childish giggle rushed toward Garnet.  
"Where?" She said excitedly.  
Garnet had a slight look of annoyance, she readjusted her visor.  
"Somewhere in South America in northern-western Colombia."  
Pearl froze, her grin replaced with an uneasy one. "She's hiding…there?" She said, her voice almost a whisper.

Garnet nodded, her face shifting into a silent fury.

"Mmmm Hmmm, I got the pod working, but I was only able to hold it for a few seconds because _someone_ got jumpy."  
Amethyst looked up, her eyes were full of shame and remorse. She too had her arms crossed, but she was looked down and kicked some sand. Steven was looking at Amethyst with sympathy. I felt like this kinda awkward moment happened often. Amethyst gets in a fuzzy pickle and Garnet scolds her for it.

"Sooo..." I said, standing up "Are we just gonna stand around here doing nothing? Or are we gonna keep hunting a Peridot?" I was trying to save Amethyst from more pain than she was already in, but we were also getting off track. With every second we hesitated, the more of a chance we had of losing Peridot.

Steven looked back at me with excitement. Amethyst gave me a faint smile. Garnet sighed "Alright then," she said facing the house, let's go find the lil' green punk" 


	11. Chapter XI

CHAPTER XI

DANBURITE

We warped into the middle of a jungle. The warp pad we were standing on was used recently. It looked like there used to be vines, weeds, and other stuff growing on the pad, but were cut off the the warp pad's beams. We stepped off and looked around. Steven jumped on the terrain and looked around with fascination. We forged ahead, Pearl cutting through the overgrown leaves and vines that got in the way. After a while, the seemingly endless trees opened up to show a small patch of plain land littered with these space ships. Pearl's face lit up with glee.

"Ha! She's desperate. Look at this! She's cornered herself in there!"

Garnet didn't look as happy. In fact she looked suspicious "Mmm."

Pearl didn't seem to notice "We've got her just where we want her."

Steven looked confused as he stared to the ship "What is—?"

Pearl didn't even let Steven finish "Excellent question, Steven! What we see before us is an interplanetary space vessel"

She projected a depiction of the ships approaching and landing on Earth from her gem. This was the first time I saw Pearl this optimistic, I should've been happy, but something about it made me nervous. Pearl continued to explain what the space vessel was "Homeworld Gems used these ships to travel across the cosmos and land here on Earth before the Warp Pads were built. But these ships landed here so long ago that there's no way they can be functional. Peridot must be running out of ideas! And it's about time! After weeks. I hated to kill Pearl's optimism, but even though Peridot was "cornered" I didn't want to hesitate to capture her.

"Pearl, Calm down. We need to focus at-"

Pearl jumped forward. "Ah yes! The task at hand, let's go catch Peridot!"  
She ran to the ship. I looked at Garnet who was not as nearly as enthusiastic. Neither was Amethyst, who instead looked guilty. Steven was the only one who looked excited. He ran after Pearl to the ship and they both disappeared into the giant ship. The rest of us walked to the thing.

When we stepped in the hole in the ship the entire noise emanating from the jungle at once dissipated. The noise of the cicadas and birds of the jungles silenced and all I heard in the ship was a deep echo and metal groaning to hold up what remained of the space vessel. The walls and floor were covered in vines and other algae, clearly showing how old the thing was. There was the ship's control panel in front of us.

Steven shivered "It's more like a greenhouse than a spaceship."

Amethyst had a faint, yet hopeful smile "Looks like Earth won this battle."

"Gee, you think?" I muttered quietly to her.

Suddenly, the Gem projector on the control panel activated. Everyone stopped in their tracks, as the projector glowed. It blazes to life, a square screen sprouting from the panel. Who activated the panel, you ask? Why, the same gem that activated it. Peridot, the little green snob herself, was laughing at us. What did she have to laugh about? She was the one cornered in this dump.

"You Gems really are as dull as dirt!" Peridot spat.

Pearl, looking furious as well as confident, huffed her chest. "You're the dull one if you think you can fly this wreck!"

Peridot did not respond, everything silent for a moment. In the silence, I heard Pearl's voice vaguely echo in throughout the ship. Peridot looked at us, waiting for a response, I guess. The silence started to get awkward.

"What? Can you speak louder? Some of these communicators are gunked up."

At the base of the panel, there were two microphones, though they had gems on the tip instead of the pop filter. They were covered in greenery and vines. Steven grabbed one of the microphones, brushed the plants off of it.

He cleared his throat and said "Pearl says, 'You're the dull one if you think you can fly this wreck!'"

For an awkward 10 seconds, nothing happened. Silence gripped the room. I vaguely heard Steven's voice quietly echo in the background from the projection.

Peridot laughed arrogantly "Fly!? I'm not using this vessel to fly! I'm using it to trap you!"

Suddenly, the entryway to the ship, which seemed like it was blasted away, slammed shut behind us. I turned back to see Peridot with an _really_ obnoxious smug look on her face.

"Isn't this nice?... No more Crystal Gems running around, messing with my plans, destroying my things... looks like I've got you just where I want you. How does it feel to be so easily outsmarted, you clods!?"

Pearl looked devastated and furious at the same time "No!"

Amethyst didn't look fazed at all, she calmly walked up to the panel an snatched the microphone right from Steven's hand.

"Hey, uh, this is Amethyst," she said "I don't appreciate being called a clod, you clo–"

"Enough talk!" Peridot said, interrupting Amethyst. "Prepare yourselves for annihilation!"

Grinning, Peridot pressed something like a button off-screen, "HIYA!"

The ship started groaning slightly. Some dust fell from the ceiling.

"Here we go!" I said, bracing myself for whatever came at us, but nothing happened. It still didn't make the scenario any less tense. Peridot looked annoyed and pressed another button,

"HIYA!" She shouted again.

This time, the ship shook and the groan grew louder and more intense. The ship's laser defense systems, which were covered in plants and moss, activated. Jeez, what doesn't have greenery on this piece of junk? The laser shooters slowly but surely, extended toward us.

"Aha! It works!" Peridot exclaimed. "Yes...!"

The laser shooters started humming, glowing with energy. Then, as they couldn't get any brighter, they opened fire at all of us from all directions.

"SCATTER!" I ordered, which felt new, but it came natural to me.

Everyone dove in different directions, looking for cover. Peridot started laughing, growing more insane and louder as it continued.

"DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE, DIE!" she screamed manically. Everyone was running like madmen, we would all be smears on the floor before we could find cover at this rate. We needed something strong and durable to shield us from the lasers.

Wait a minute…

Shield…

Steven!

I scanned the room for Steven. He was running around, his hands above his head in a would-be futile attempt to save his face from the lasers.

"Steven!" I called "Summon your shield if you can, umbrella the lasers!"

Steven looked at me, and nodded obediently. His gem and his arm glowed a with pink energy. Rose's shield sprung on his arm and he lifted it over it head, enlarging it as he lifted. Wow! I didn't know he was able to do that! His strength filled me with determination. I became self-conscious that I had taken it upon myself to order him and the others. This was Garnet's job, but it felt right and natural that I gave the command. Steven gestured for me to hurry forward, then he turned frantically to the others, hope shining in his eyes. I ran over to Steven, keeping my head low.

"Guys!," he called "Over here!"

"And hurry!" I added

The three Gems turned to us and gunned it in our directions. As soon as everyone was under Steven's shield, I started looking for an exit, a hallway, anywhere out of this room. I didn't doubt Steven's strength, but I knew he could keep this massive shield up for long. My sight was limited because of the lasers, how we were all squished together under the shield, and the panic that filled the room. Garnet pointed behind the panel, at a collection of vines. Behind it, normal, non-laser induced light peaked through the tiny gaps in the vines.

"That way!" Garnet ordered.

We headed toward the hallway, the shield protected us quite well from the lasers, which bounced off harmlessly. Like rain on an umbrella. Steven lowered his shield at an angle, high enough to protect us from the line of fire, but low enough so I could tear through the vines with my mitts. I heard Steven struggling to keep the shield up, which was flickering and wobbling on his arm. Steven himself was struggling to stand.

As fast as light, Garnet morphed her arms to an abnormally large size and yanked us and herself into the hallway, away from the danger. As soon as Garnet grabbed Steven, Steven's shield shimmered and disappeared. He collapsed on the floor from exhaustion. I heard him breathing heavily, his chest rising and falling at an alarming rate.

Amethyst, being the enthusiastic and optimistic one right now, helped him up and laughed.

"You're on fire, Steven!"

He exhaled in exhaustion "That's the biggest shield I ever made!"

Garnet ruffled his hair "Not to mention the longest you've held one"

Steven smiled wearily "Not too sha—"

Suddenly, the ground shook, making dust and plants fall from the walls and ceiling, the ship's groaning grew even louder than before. It sounded horrible, metal screeching against metal. Spikes appeared all around the hallway, one almost impaling Steven. I picked up Steven and carried him in my arms.

"Move!" Garnet and I ordered.

"Aye….aye….capt'n" Steven muttered deliriously, then he passed out in my arms.

Pearl and Garnet ran ahead while Amethyst stayed at my side, in case any baddies got the wrong idea. Peridot's ugly, obnoxious voice echoed in the hallway, her voice sounding omnipotent, yet equally annoying.

"SPIKES!" She screamed "How do you like my spikes!?"

"WHY, LOVE THEM, GOT ANYMORE!?" I shouted, my voice almost drowned out by the groaning ship. We kept running until the giant corridor thinned into a hallway at a dead end. A green figure was at the end of the hallway, its arms crossed. As we got closer, it was clear that it was Peridot, but something was off about her. A little lightning quick examination told me that this is _not_ Peridot…..Well….it is, and it isn't. This was a decoy of sorts. So, what happens next, _really_ frustrated me. Let me explain why.

It was completely obvious the Peridecoy was fake. First off, she had both her feet. Second, SHE WAS GLOWING LIKE A FREAKING GLOWSTICK. SO. I was _so_ annoyed and frustrated when _both_ Pearl _and_ Amethyst ran ahead in anger.

"PERIDOT!" Pearl snarled.

"GET HER!" Amethyst followed.

Pearl was to far ahead to stop, so I grabbed Amethyst's shoulder instead. She turned toward me in a rage, shouldering my grip on her.

"What are you-?"

"PEARL!" Garnet yelled angrily, "Don't just... !" She never finished,but her furious growl in frustration spoke for her.

Amethyst watched Pearl slash at the fake Peridot with her spear, only to find that it is merely a hologram. The hologram separated and reduced to green static as soon as the blade touched it, but it stabilized seconds later.

Peridot grinned and snickered smugly, "Heheheh, you idiot."

Pearl stared at the hologram in shock. Amethyst looked at me with gratitude, clearly grateful to avoid Garnet, more specifically Ruby's, fury. Pearl overcome with anger and frustration repeatedly swung and slashed viciously at the hologram. Garnet facepalmed in exasperation, while Amethyst still looking at me gratefully. Slowly, we started to approach Pearl. Eventually, she tired out. Pearl gave up her deadly assault on the hologram.

Garnet,rubbing her eyes under her visor, grunted angrily "Pearl, stop." She growled "That isn't helping."

"And I think the poor hologram has had enough Fruit Ninja from you" I added.

Garnet gave a three-eyed glare momentarily directing her anger on me. Her message was clear, _Not now_. I shrugged, my hands still occupied, before backing off.

 _Buzzkill_ , I thought.

 _Don't provoke her_ , the Voice said.

What the..? What did this little punk think he is? _I'll do whatever the hell I want! Humor included!_ I spat

 _Your funeral._

Pearl let out a frustrated cry "I have to do something! I can't believe I walked us right into Peridot's trap. This is all my-"

The ground shook.

"...fault?"

The Holo-Peridot shimmered and disappeared and the ground started to shake once more, this time, it didn't stop and shook furiously.

"Oh come on!" I complained "This place is worse than Southern California!"

The floor rumbled even more. Then it collapsed into a funnel beneath our feet, causing all of us to fall into the pit. Steven fell past Amethyst, who forms two whips, one of them grabbed Steven while the other went taut around a loose twig on the roof of the ship. I summoned my battle gloves, spiked knuckles, whatever the hell they're called. I shoved them into the wall, slowing my fall into a gradual glide, sparks slapped my entire backside. I landed on the floor with minor discomfort.

"I got you Steven!" Amethyst grunted

"You can let go!" I called "I got you two!"

Amethyst looked at me with trust and, although hesitating, she let go. I tackled Steven and pulled Amethyst from her whip.

"Thanks you two" Steven said. Then he gasped in realization "Garnet and Pearl! Are you guys okay?"

CRAP! I forgot about them! All three of us looked down in another hole that had Pearl and Garnet at the bottom, looking up at us. The small chamber was the same size as the hole we fell through.

"You two hurt?" I shouted.

"We're fine!" Garnet replied.

Suddenly, the floor slammed shut above Garnet and Pearl, trapping them within the tiny chamber. Must've felt claustrophobic.

Amethyst gulped nervously "Crud"

She retracted her whip. Next to a gear system, a television-like screen showed Garnet and Pearl in the chamber. The two gems we hacking at the walls of the chamber but nothing was happening.

"We gotta get 'em out!" Steven said, turning to me and Amethyst "Amethyst, Danburite, what should we- !?

Pearl started to talk, cutting him off, the video's audio was like an old television. We didn't stop because Pearl talked, she does that all the time. In fact, she does that _too_ much. It's what she said that stopped us.

"Garnet…" she cried "I'm sorry!"

Amethyst, not taking her eyes off the screen gestured for Steven to stop. "Wait a sec…." Pearl had stopped slashing at the wall, probably realizing how futile it was.

"Things weren't supposed to turn out this way."

NOPE. Of course not! She just can't shut her trap. I still stood there, frozen, hypnotized. Exactly like Steven and Amethyst.

Garnet punched the wall one more time, before stopping "We'll get out of here somehow." she said, much more calm than before

"That's not what I mean... I really wanted to catch Peridot for everything she's done to you and Steven and Amethyst. I wanted to make things go back to normal"

"Catching Peridot won't make things go back to normal." Garnet said "This isn't about Peridot."

"Hey!" Amethyst said. "Pearl is spillin' the beans!"

Steven smiled enthusiastically "Now she can finally let go!"

I hated to kill this amazing, heart-warming, sappy epiphany, but the gears had started to move. The walls on the chamber started to close in like a trash crusher.

"Not if they get crushed!" Amethyst exclaimed.

"So do something about it you nutburger!"

Amethyst turned toward me, "Any suggestions, Einstein?!"

I looked at the video screen, Garnet and Pearl were pushing against the force of the walls, unfortunately, it was completely useless. They were talking, but the wall's screech against the floor made it incoherent words. I thought furiously, accounting everything that had happened in the last 60 seconds.

Fell down. Spikes on hand broke fall, scratching the metal. Trapdoor. It was a few inches closes. Nothing happens. The gears start moving.

The gears!

"Amethyst! Whip! Now!" I ordered.

She instantly obliged, then she rushed to me.

"Wrap it around the gears!"

With a flick of the wrist, the whip became tangled in the gears stopping it. Amethyst held her ground until the gears started pulling her. Steven and I dove for the whip, helping her out. The gears groaned under the stress, but they stopped. If we let go, they would keep going. We could hear Garnet talking.

"-not easy being in charge." She said "I have weaknesses too. But I choose not to let them consume me. I struggle to stay strong because I know the impact I have on everyone. Please understand, Pearl. You have an impact too. There are times when I look up to you for strength. You are your own gem. You control your destiny. Not me, not Rose, not Peridot. But you must choose to be strong, so we can move forward. So you can be strong again."

Pearl nodded and steeled her expression "I understand. I can't give up anymore!"

Garnet smiled faintly "Good!"

I turned away from the screen to focus on pulling the whip, I saw a snippet of the whip snap off. It was starting to break!.

"Oh...Give me….a….break!" I said straining to keep the gears still, but the whip snapped and came in two.

The gears stopped groaning and kept chugging forward, causing the walls to continue to close in. DAMN IT! Think, Danburite! THINK! Your spikes damaged the walls, the trapdoor is only about a few inches thick. It was a total shot in the dark, but it was all I had. I could save them _if_ I was strong enough to break the door _if_ my spikes could damage it _if_ it was made of the same stuff as the wall. Screw it! Calculating odds come after the action! Just try something and pray for deus ex machina.

Steven and Amethyst were panicking, running back and forth in the room "AAAH! What do we do, what do we do, what do we do!?"

"Here goes nothing!" I said leaping on top of the trapdoors, lifting my fist to slam it into the trap door. Suddenly the floor crumbled and opened up in chunks, Sardonyx leaped out of the hole, her war hammer spinning like a drill. It slowed down and stopped.

 _ **(DEUS EX MACHINA FOR THE WIN!)**_

Sardonyx immediately unfused into Garnet and Pearl without a word. The two looked at each other in the eyes for a moment. Enough of this sappy crap. We'll get all lovey-dovey later after we caught the green slimebucket.

"Ok! Are we all nice and made up? Can I go shove some spikes up Peridot's-?"

OOOOKAY! Time skip! The language after that wasn't profane at all. I said 'nose', I promise. Just wanted to add a laugh or two.

After a ton of twists in turns in empty, weathered hallways, we found our way to the control room. It was blocked by a huge door, the size of a small plane hangar door. I didn't need to say anything. Garnet and I looked at each other and smiled. There was no need to say anything it was like a sixth sense. We both shared a tendency toward violence. If Peridot was behind that door, I wanted to slam my fist into that door with all my might. We both armored our arms and charged the door. We slammed both our fists into the hangar door and the metal crumpled instantly. The door now had a nicely sized hole in it, like a giant bullet just penetrated it. Dust covered the area and we all hurried through the hole, Garnet went first and when the dust cleared enough, we could see Peridot at another control panel. She was leaning against the controls and looked startled and scared to see us. The entrance was quite theatrical, sure, but what are you going to do about it?

"Surrender, Peridot!" Garnet shouted "You have nowhere to run!"

"The Crystal Gems are gonna get yoooou!" Steven taunted  
Peridot smiled arrogantly. Oh, come on. What now? What does she have planned?

"You really think this is the end!?" Peridot snickered, forming a blaster out of her fingers and pointed it at us, charging it. "Hahahaha... this, this is only the beginning…" She pointed the blaster away from us and held it straight up, "...of my escape!"

Peridot fired the energy ball and blasted the ceiling, covering us in a new layer of dust and debris, all of us startled by the impact. By the time we could see again, there was a hole in the roof and Peridot was laughing as she started to fly away with her helicopter fingers, towards the hole.

Peridot sneered once more, "Well, I'd love to stick around and watch another one of your pathetic attempts to capture me, but I guess I'm just too smart for the likes of you lumpy, clumpy, clods!"

"Alright, I've had enough of this!" I said angrily. I picked up Steven over my head. I looked at him with trust, "Ready?"

He nodded, then looked at Peridot "Ready!"

"I'm sick and tired of being called a CLOD!" I yelled, throwing Steven at the last word. Peridot was midair laughing obnoxiously again, but Steven caught hold of her one and only foot, weighing her down.

"I caught a Peridot!" He said.

Oooh! I _love_ this kid! He's done it! The other gems and I cheered him on.

"Hey! Get your touch-stumps off me, you Steven!" Peridot tried to shake Steven off, and in retaliation, Steven bit Peridot's foot. "Hey!"

Amethyst jumped up and grabbed Steven, who in is grabbed by Pearl, who is in turn grabbed by Garnet on the ground. I summoned my spiked knuckles to prepare for the killing blow.

"Yeah, Steven!" Amtheyst cheered.

"Don't let her go!" Pearl encouraged.

"Let 'er have it, Steven!" Garnet finished.

Peridot, obviously panicking, yelled in annoyance "Raagh!" She yelled, flicking Steven in the face. "Let go of me, you, you... persistent... little... whatever exactly you are! This planet has an expiration date and I don't want to stick around and found out when! This place is going to be shattered by the Clus-!"

"Peridot," Garnet interrupted. "Your flight's... been cancelled!"

"Wait! She was gonna-!"

Peridot cut me off with a stupid complain "Nooo…!" She clicked something on her last foot with one of her fingers, outlining it with a lime greenish glow. Suddenly it detached from the rest of her body, causing Steven, Amethyst, and Pearl to fall.

"You gems will pay for this!" She said.

"Not this time!" I yelled "You ain't gettin' away from me that easy even again!"

I leaped up as hard as I could, Peridot yelled and tried to maneuver away from me, but I came at her too fast. I stopped rising, conveniently slightly above Peridot, when I could slam her down.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no!" She cried

I growled and raised my fist, "Lay off my friends, punk!"I shouted before slamming her downward.

Instantly, she exploded in green smoke, her gem hurdling to the floor. Huh. I guess that's why Steven calls it _poofing._ I fell to the ground and landed on my back, my fists still clenched. As soon as I hit the floor, I realized how tired I was, and I let everything go limp. Cracks appeared where I had landed.

"Ow" After a short, quiet pause.

Steven ran over as I sat upright. "That was _awesome_! It was like you spiked her down like a bolleyball!"

My chest heaved like an engine on a sugar rush. "Volleyball." I corrected, gasping for as much air as I could get.

Steven shrugged, "Tomato potato"

"Actually it's…" I paused "...y'know what? Nevermind"

I let myself flop back on the ground with a sigh. I looked up and saw a pile of green stuff. I turned on my belly and got to my feet.

"What are those?" I asked pointing at the pile, then I started walking over to the pile.

Pearl walked over curiously, "What on Earth….?"

I picked up a piece, it was Peridot's forearm. I turned and saw the foot she ejected on the floor, slightly smoking at the end that it was detached. I looked back down, one of the pieces was also smoking a bit at the end.

My mind put two and two together, "They're-?"

"They're not actually part of her body?" Pearl said.

"Prosthetic Limbs" I said.

 _Those are the Limb Enhancers I told you about earlier_ the Voice told me in my mind.

Note taken. Limb enhancers. I didn't say anything to avoid suspicion. Also, I didn't want to look like a maniac.

Both me and Pearl dropped the limbs in disgust. Garnet walked over, grouped the limbs together, and punched them with her gauntlet through the hole in the rough and into oblivion.

"Oops" she said stoically.

Steven brought over Peridot's foot, he was still smiling gleefully. Then he picked up a finger, examining it closely. "Looks like Peridot's going to be STICKing around, for a bit!" he said, lifting the finger.

Garnet smiled, "It's a good step forward."

I heard Amethyst groan and gasp, still sitting on the floor from taking the spill, "Finally" she said. I picked up Peridot's gem. Feeling a bit off, but I just shrugged it off as we headed home. 


	12. Chapter XII

_**Chapter XII**_

DANBURITE

The next day, everyone seemed happier and was getting along better. They were talking with smiles, laughing with sincerity and seemingly without worry. The joy filled through the air, lighting up the mood of the entire house and giving everyone warmth.

But I knew better.

An uneasiness whispered through the room. It could not be seen or heard. It was a feeling. You simply knew it was there. It was a wisp of insecurity in the joyous air, it clung to the edges of the lips with each smile, it hid ever so quietly underneath the relief of each laugh. The other's didn't want to notice it and chose to ignore it.

But I didn't.

After Garnet, Amethyst, Pearl, Steven, and I got back from the ruins of the Sea Spire looking for Aquamarine and Amber, we had realized it was a bit early to hit the hay, so we had something like mini-party. We ordered pizza which both Garnet and Pearl passed on, and played some board games until late. We seemed to forget about everything that happened yesterday with Peridot. Her name was not even referred to at all. The green gem was still in my pocket and, with it, a bad feeling about something that was said.

After a few hours, everyone started to wade of to their room to rest. I would say sleep, except that would imply Pearl sleeps and that is a flat out lie. Regardless, I was playing a board game with just Amethyst and Steven. It was one of those complicated board games with a very childish topic to it. I could barely follow the rules and mechanics of it, even with my supposed mimic powers. An hour passed and, from what I was picking up, we near the end-game stage. Is that was that is called? Please correct me if I'm wrong with that.

An hour passed and Amethyst decided to jet, which was just as good as her staying, which consisted of her falling asleep between turns and me waking her up to take her turn very sleepily and mellowly, only to fall asleep again afterwards.

"Y'know what, dudes? I'm gonna go ta bed now." Amethyst said, standing up while stretching.

Steven frowned "Awwww!" he complained "But we need al least three people to play!"

Amethyst yawned and started to walk to the Temple Gate. "We could finish it tomorrow, man"

Steven looked down and looked disappointed. "Alriiiight" he said. "I guess we could finish it tomorrow"

"Awesome" Amethyst said sleepily. "Well, if you or Danburite need me, I'll be in my room eating garbage and sleeping" she walked through the gate which had already opened for her.

"Gotcha!" I said "Wait, what? Garbage?"

Amethyst didn't seem to hear me. "Peace!" she said, before the gate closed behind her.

I decided to shrug the comment off. Whatever she did in her room was her business, eating garbage included. Once more, It was just Steven and I alone in the house. He got up without a word and went to the fridge, pulling multiple condiments out.

I sat alone on the couch and stared at the board game, thinking intently. Words echoed through my mind. Two different quotes from two different gems.

 _You're going to need all the help you can get if you're going to stop Homeworld._

This is what Aquamarine told the four Crystal Gems when he and Amber first met them. Garnet and Pearl both recalled the comment, telling me they never thought about it until they explained it to me. This is why it baffled me when they had little to no reaction to the other quote that waded through my mind. It's something Peridot said yesterday. Don't worry, I'll say it. You don't need to turn back to the previous chapter.

 _This planet has an expiration date and I don't want to stick around and found out when!_

"Expiration date"? What did she mean by that? She mentioned something else. According to her, this planet was going to be "shattered" by something. I tried to keep her talking, but the anxiousness of the situation was too great for interrogation.

I still had Peridot's gem. I pulled it out of my pocket and studied it, wondering what she was going to say. Not only that I felt like both Aquamarine and Peridot were talking about the same threat, but never had the chance to specify.

"Is that Peridot's gem?" Steven said, startling me.

"Umm, yeah...yeah it is" I said, still shaken.

Steven had a pile of waffles in his hands, freshly toasted and had syrup on it. He studied the gem with fascination before putting the meal down on the table. Then he looked at the board game. His face lit up with excitement and joy.

"I have an idea!" Steven said.

I leaned forward, "What is it?"

"We could finish the game right now!" He said

I tilted my head "How? We need….three….players" I said, slowly looking down at the gem in my hands. "You want Peridot to play?"

He nodded gleefully "Yeah! Then she'll see how awesome we are and she'll be our friend by morning!"

"And if you're wrong?" I asked.

Steven waved away the question "I'm usually never wrong about this kinda thing!"

"'usually never'? Is that even possible?"

He shrugged, clearly anxious to free Peridot. "I guess!"

I thought for a minute, thinking of the consequences of letting Peridot free vs. not letting her free. Eventually, I decided for instead of against. What was the worst she was going to do? I got some real strength according to Garnet, which was saying something. So if Peridot tried anything stupid, I could just squash her back into a gem. Then again, I wasn't exactly looking forward to Garnet's blank glare again. The main reason I decided to go with Steven's way is to get some answers on what she was talking about yesterday.

I shrugged, much to Steven's excitement "Y'know what? I don't see anything bad happening." I placed the gem on the table. "Let's give it a shot"

"Yeeesss!" Steven said triumphantly.

What happened next was a bit awkward, if not humorous. A minute or so of anti-climatic silence occurred. Both of us stared at the green gem intently on the table, not saying a word. Then it started glowing and humming. Steven gasped gleefully as it slowly raised up in the air.

 _Here we go_ , I thought.

Lime green light emitted from the gem and took a humanoid form with a very large triangular head. A bright green flash momentarily blinded us and there was a _THUD_.

I opened my eyes taking my first peek at the New Peridot. Now, she didn't have her limb enhancers, like I was expecting, but what I _didn't_ expect was her to be the same height, if not a little taller, than Steven. Peridot emerged with her arm raised, looking angry. She was obviously in the middle of saying something, but had been interrupted when I poofed her. I didn't hear anything, so she probably said it under her breath then meant to yell it. the first words that came out her were:

"-insufferable, half-formed, traitorous, MEGA CLODS!" She screamed.

"Woah, there missy. Those are some thoughtful first words you got there" I said.

Peridot shook her head, "Where am-?" She started, then she looked down, realizing she had no limb enhancers.

Steven gasped, examining Peridot with amazement "Oh my gosh your so-"

Peridot turned and noticed him "GAH!"

" _cuuuuute_!"

She looked back down at her legs, panic in her eyes "My limb enhancers! _Where are my limb enhancers_?!" She cried.

Steven was too busy getting a cuteness overload to listen "Awww! Your like and angry little slice of pie!"

Peridot whirled and glared at Steven, her eyes wild and crazy. "Stop talking, I demand to know where this place-"

She stopped and gasped when she looked up at me. I gave a smile and waved. Peridot screamed in terror and fell over and off the coffee table, landing on her back on the floor.

"Oh my stars!" Peridot screamed "Get away from me, you psychotic clod!"

Steven peaked over the table then walked over to Peridot who had scrambled to her feet. "Are you okay?" He asked "Do you need som-"

Peridot cut him off with a slap on the cheek, clearly angry and annoyed by the boy's confrontation. I was ready to stand up but something stopped me.

 _No. Don't!_ the Voice yelled at me telepathically.

 _Why the hell not!?_

 _Remember, Steven has a way with people. Just sit this one out._

… _.fine….but when a push becomes a shove…._

 _Don't let me stop you_

"Ow!" He shouted "That hurt!"

Peridot tilted her head, "It did?" She asked

"Yeah," Steven said, rubbing his head "A lot." Peridot slapped him again "Ow!"

Peridot laughed insanely "Yes!" She screamed, hitting Steven repeatedly and making him back up. "Feel my unbridled rage!"

Steven looked more uncomfortable than in pain. He grabbed her arms "Hey! Hey, hey!" Steven said, then let go of her tiny arm, he smiled, pointing to her chest. "What's that on your shirt?"

"What's a shirt?" Peridot asked, looking down at his finger. Steven flicked his finger up at her face and laughed wholeheartedly.

"Ow!" Peridot growled "That's it!" she growled. Then she pounced on top of him, tackling him to the ground. She started slapping his face repeatedly. Steven got to his feet and lifted his arms to protect his face.

"Why are you acting like this!?" he asked.

Peridot kept hitting his arms relentlessly. It was kinda amusing to watch.

"You smashed me into a limbless cloud! You trapped me here in your insignificant lair! And, you called me ... cute!"

Peridot tried tackling Steven again, but this time he dodged and Peridot flew through the air, landing right at my feet.

I smiled, knowing she was afraid of me. "Actually," I said, leaning forward, "I was the one who slammed you into the ground like a ball"

"Eeep!" Peridot squeaked before scrambling away from me in fear. It was funny to see someone like her so scared of me. Not to mention satisfying. I let out a laugh as Steven walked over.

"We actually let you out" I said reclining on the couch again. "Steven's idea"

She paused looking at me, fear still in her eyes, then at Steven "Why would you make such a miscalculation?" Peridot asked him.

"To play games!" He exclaimed gleefully. "and eat waffles!"

"Waffles?" Peridot wondered "What are games?"

Steven looked at Peridot with joy, "Games are something you play to have fun!"

"Fun?"

Steven blinked, then he yawned. His eyes started to close "Fun…. is…." He rubbed his eyes.

I coughed nervously "Hey, uh, Steven, doing okay there buddy?"

He nodded, smiling wearily "I'm alright" he said stumbling. "I...feel...a little…..tired" He flopped down on the floor and started snoring.

"Hey, Steven" I called, but he didn't respond.

"Get up buddy" I tried again. Nothing.

"Is he broken?" Peridot asked.

"Shut your trap" I snapped "He's fine."

 _No he's not,_ the Voice said.

 _No he's not,_ I agreed.

I stood up and picked up Steven, putting him over my shoulder. I heard him snoring fast asleep, almost like a baby bear cub. I carried him over to the couch and flopped him down on the cushions. He didn't stir one bit, not even a groan. I sighed and looked at him for a bit. So much for finishing the game. Meh, I was losing interest anyway. I grabbed a waffle and shoved it in my mouth, then, after I swallowed, I turned my full attention toward Peridot, curled up in a ball and her face buried behind her small legs. Steven was right, she _was_ adorable. It didn't matter much to me.

"So…" I said, licking the syrup off my fingers. "...I guess we won't be 'playing'. At least not this version.

Peridot groaned fearfully "What do you want!?" she shouted.

I leaned forward once more, sneaking a silent threat in my words "You were about to say something about something that would destroy this planet. I want to know what."

Instead of cowering in fear, Peridot scoffed, "Oh, you want to know about the Cluster"

I gestured her to continue. "Go on. What do you know about it?"

She laughed, though it wasn't as annoying as earlier. "What do I know? Everything there is to know about the Cluster, you pebble."

"Wait, "pebble"?" I said, then I paused, I reverted back to the matter at hand. "Nevermind. Continue, my green bean."

Peridot gave a not-so-menacing glare. Then she continued "My mission. The reason why I'm on this sad rock in the first place! I was to check progress on the Cluster!" She said, panic and distress crawling in her voice "Just in and out, before it hatches. I wasn't supposed to get stuck here! But now it's going to emerge and nothing can stop it, and we'll all be shattered!"

I put my hands up in a time-out position. Walking over and sitting down crossing my legs in front of her, she was too scared of this "Cluster" to notice.

"Okay, okay, wait, slow down." I said. "Now, from the top... emerging, hatching, Clusters? Remember to keep calm."

She looked at me suspiciously, raising an eyebrow "You wanna know?"

"Yes."

"You really wanna know?"

I rolled my eyes,"Of course!"

Instead of giving me an answer, she pointed at my chest, her tiny finger almost poking the star. "What's your shirt?"

I looked down at my clothing, then back at her. "What do you me-"

Peridot flicked her finger up, hitting my face. Exactly what Steven did to her. In the moment I was dazed, she made a run for the door, laughing and screaming in delight.

"YES! FINALLY! YOU'LL NEVER MAKE ME TALK, YOU CLOD!" She sneered.

I rubbed my eye, then looked up, anger tunneling my vision. "Why you little-!"

"FREEDOM IT _MINE_!"

"GET OVA' HERE!" I shouted, the yell shaking the building. Peridot turned to see me lunging like a tiger for her. She yelped and turned to run but never took a step. I caught her and tackled her to the ground. I stood above her and summoned my spiked glove.

"You ain't goin' _nowhere_." I snarled, before bringing my fist down on her.

 _Poof!_


	13. Chapter XIII

**Chapter XIII**

 _DANBURITE_

The very next day, I was sitting on the island table in the kitchen, eating breakfast with Steven. He ate his pancakes and cereal nervously, his hand shaking as he slowly put the spoonful cereal his mouth.

"Hey" I said, trying to get his attention. I needed this boy to get a grip.

Steven looked up, his cheeks puffed up from the food in his mouth. His distress evident in his expression.

"I need you to get a grip, squirt."

Steven slowly swallowed. "O-o-okay." He stuttered.

I put a hand on his shoulder reassuringly "The Gems should be coming any minu-"

The Temple Gate glowed and sprung to life, humming with magical power. When it opened, Pearl and Garnet walked out, both looked in a good mood. The walked over to the table and sat down, waiting silently. They both glanced at me happily. It was awkward for me, so I couldn't exactly focus.

I tried to remember what the plan was. I looked back and forth between Pearl and Garnet, who were still had an oddly unsettling smile, and Steven, who looked ready to pass out. I cleared my throat, trying to get their attention, but I didn't get a reaction.

I sighed. "Who's gonna talk first? You gonna talk first? Am I gonna talk first?"

Garnet laughed "What's there to talk about?"

I shrugged "I dunno. I just don't like silence" I said, which was a half-lie. It's true, I hate silence, but I don't push others for noise.

Pearl noticed Steven who was still silently panicking. "Steven are you alright?"

Steven looked up, going for a smile, but it came out as weak and very forced "Y-yeah...it's….just….umm…." He stammered, obviously not comfortable with lying.

"He had a nightmare." I said, saving him. "Been up since."

Garnet raised an eyebrow, looking slightly suspicious "Oh, really?" She said, leaning toward the table "Do tell"

Damn. Either Garnet's a detective, or I'm a _really_ bad liar. Don't panic, Danburite, just use the usually foolproof plan.

IMPROVISATION!

I shrugged again, playing dumb. "Don't know. He wouldn't say. Whatever it is, it scared him a lot."

I looked at him with pity for good measure "Can't say I blame 'em, I know I wouldn't talk much if something scared the shards outta me."

Was it good? Maybe.

Didn't I think it would work? Sure, why not?

Would they buy it? I have no clue.

If they noticed, they didn't care much. Especially Pearl. Her smile was replaced with a concerned look aimed at Steven.

"Are you going to be able to recover, Steven?" Pearl asked.

Steven looked at her fearfully. "Of c-course….dad." He caught himself and put his hands up. "I mean, mom! I mean….! Pearl….I'll be okay."

"The boy will be fine." I added "He has more grit than he lets on, I tell ya." I said

"Danburite is right" Garnet chimed in "Steven is a lot tougher than he looks."

"I-I think I just need some alone time." He stammered anxiously.

Damn, this kid has more brains than I thought too.

Pearl looked reluctant, but she sighed and closed her eyes. "Alright then. I guess we could continue the search for Malachite."

She stood and stretched, "Garnet, are you coming with me?"

Garnet stood still, staring straight at me, her face blank. What was this? A glare-off? What did I do to deserve this crap?

"Garnet?" Pearl asked again, this time with a little attitude.

"I'm comin'." Garnet said, keeping her gaze on me.

She stood up and walked toward the Warp Pad, putting her hand on Pearl's shoulder before walking past her. The Temple Gate opened up in a purple goo being torn apart and Amethyst walked through. She was yawning and stretching as she walked to the table, but before she could reach it, Pearl blocked her way.

Amethyst looked at Pearl with annoyance. "What's the deal, Pierogi?"

"Were going to look for Malachite down south." Pearl said.

Amethyst scoffed and walked around her "Pshh. Well, you two have fun."

Pearl looked annoyed. "Amethyst…" she said, exasperated.

"Stay outta trouble"

"Amethyst." Pearl repeated, her voice taking a stern tone.

"And be back by nine"

" _Amethyst!_ You are coming with us down south to look for Malachite!" Pearl ordered.

Amethyst whirled around, "Homegirl, say what?"

Pearl put her hands on her waist "I said, you're coming with Garnet and I to look for Malachite."

Amethyst rolled her eyes. " _Auuuuuugh!_ " She groaned, then she flopped down on the floor face first. Her groans barely audible under that mane she calls a head of hair.

Pearl started tapping her foot on the floor and leaned forward. "Amethyst, get up."

Amethyst let out a series of unintelligible mumbles. I tried my hardest not to laugh. Even Steven smiled faintly.

Pearl growled in frustration, grabbing Amethyst's leg and dragged her to the Warp Pad.

"I don' wanna goooooo!" Amethyst pouted laying on the Pad, before teleporting away and leaving me and Steven in silence in the house.

As soon as they were gone, I sighed in relief and reclined in my chair.

"Well….That went well." I said, satisfied. "What do ya think, Steven?"

His response: flopping backward in his chair and hitting the floor with a _thump_. I laughed, even though it was a bit cruel.

"I'll take that as a 'yes.'"

After a moment of silence, I leaned over the table to the left to the cupboard. I heard faint whimpers coming from it.

"You can come out now" I said.

Slowly, the doors opened and Peridot slowly crawled out of her hiding place. She looked around suspiciously and fearfully. Her face barely peeking out of the top of the table.

"Are they gone?" She asked.

I rolled my eyes. "No, They're standing next to me, invisible and ready to beat the tar outta you."

"GNAH!" Peridot cried, before diving back into the cupboard. "Get away from me you cloaked clods! I'll never submit to your idiotic planet!"

"They're not actually here!" I scowled "It was a joke you dummy!"

There was a pause before Peridot crawled back out of the cupboard once more, this time closing the doors and brushing herself off.

"Right…." Peridot said, brushing herself off. "I knew that"

"You have no idea what humor is or how it works, do you?" I asked.

Peridot folded her arms and turned away, "It has no significant purpose for survival mentally or physically." She said matter-of-factly.

"You're hopeless." I muttered bitterly.

She turned around and scoffed, "Look, Danburite do you want information regarding the Cluster and its relation to the Earth?"

I stood, walking over to the coffee table and sitting down on the floor. "That was the deal no?"

"Relatively." Peridot said, walking over and sitting down in front of me. "Our Truce Pact said that I would tell you about the Cluster and you would relay the message to the Crystal Gems, thus informing them of the impending doom and recognizing me as their superior, and convincing them to help me get off this gem-forsaken hunk of rock and leaving you five to futilely attempt to save it."

"Hold it, I said I'd just tell them, not convince them to do….whatever the hell you said."

"I disagree," Peridot said raising a finger "You specifically said that you would have the Crystal Gems help me get of the Earth before the Cluster destroys the planet."

I sighed. "No, I said 'Maybe' it would happen."

"But nonetheless you mentioned a possibility which is taken as a guaranteed outcome in negotiations" She countered.

"I got your guaranteed outcome right here, you punk." I grumbled, raising my fist.

Peridot yelped, "No! That would violate the terms of our agreement!"

I clenched my teeth, then I slowly lowered my fist. "Just tell me about this Cluster, before I run you through and 'renegotiate' our little 'agreement'"

Peridot gulped. "Where do I begin to explain?"

I took a deep breath, "First what it is and why it's such a bad thing, then why and how it came about."

Peridot raised an eyebrow "Are you positive you desire the history of the Cluster?"

"Yes. Just give it to me straight."

She paused, staring at the space between us. Then she started.

"The Cluster is a biological superweapon regarding fusion. I was sent here to check on it's progress. The minor experiments used to replicate the Cluster's power was conducted by myself in the Kindergarten. I was-"

"So that's what Garnet ran into there." I guessed "And what Steven and Connie fought at the hospital."

Another pause, I looked up at Peridot, she had a look of minor annoyance on her face.

"Will you be doing this throughout my explanation?" She said.

I couldn't help but give a small smirk "Sorry." I said "I tend to do that when two and two go together"

"I don't understand that statement, but I'll continue"

I crossed my arms and said "Fire away."

"The Cluster is comprised of millions of gem shards. The result of this massive amount of shards creates an crystal larger than some of the human countries on this planet."

"Wow." I said.

Peridot smirked "I know. It's one of the most ingenious ideas for a gemstone superweapon of all time!"

My mind stopped dead in it's tracks. "Hold it," I said "'Gemstone'?"

She nodded. "The size I described was it's gemstone"

I felt my face pale, "So that means…the actual size of it…"

"The approximate measure of the actual size would be multiple times larger than the entire planet last time it was tested."

"And why hasn't it appeared?"

Peridot shuffled in uncomfortably in her spot. "That is what makes me anxious to get off this planet. It could be anytime in the future. A gem that of that magnitude requires a large amount of time to generate and regenerate. And since its creation, the Cluster is almost ready to hatch, and when it does, this place will be blown apart! And we'll all be shattered!"

Peridot started to panic again. She shivered and trembled in her spot,curling into a ball.

"Calm down. We'll be fine. We'll find it and destroy it. The Crystal Gems have survived far worse." I said reassuringly.

Instead of her calming down, her whimpers slowly turned into a giggle, which then turned into a laughing.

"Neahahahahahaha! You really think it's that easy to find?" Peridot snorted.

"Well yeah" I said nervously, losing confidence quickly. "Pretty sure it would be easy to find. I think only getting off the Earth would be a problem"

Peridot scoffed, waving the problem aside "Disposing of it after we unearth it would be hardly a task if I had access to gem technology"

"Right! That way-" I paused, catching yet another word that made me uncomfortable "...wait, 'Unearth'?"

Peridot rolled her eyes as if it were obvious "Well of course! The Cluster is using the Earth's crust and upper mantle as an incubator."

I thought for a long while. I had gotten the information I needed. Now I just needed to tell the others...but what of Peridot? The deal was done, I had to let her go. And there was no way in _hell_ I wanted to do that. Unless…

She had a deal with me, and not the Gems. So if I…

Yes, it would work. Did I mention I loved finding exploits? I couldn't wait to see Peridot's reaction. I lifted my head and faced her. She looked bored. I tried to mask my face from my excitement as launched my brilliant, mischievous, and basically jerkish plan.

"Okay!" I said, standing up smiling. "That's all I needed to know!"

Peridot looked confused. "Wait, That's it? You don't want to know anything else?"

"Nope!"

She stood, looking pleased. "Thank you, Danburite. You might be more civilized than those other clods in your unit"

I chuckled a bit. "Just one more thing." I said.

Peridot's smile started to fade. "What do you mean?"

"You're going to help me explain the Cluster bit to the Crystal Gems."

Her eyes widened, falling backward. " _Oh my stars!_ You can't! Our agreement said you would let me go!"

I walked over the couch and sat down, reclining on the cushions. "I never said that. I said the _Crystal Gems_ would let you go."

Peridot trembled "You…! You traitor! You betrayed me!"

I folded my arms, knowing there was no way she could negotiate her way out of this. No loophole she could exploit.

"No. I specifically said that the Crystal Gems would let you….maybe" I said.

She had a face I'd wish I had a picture of. She stammered in anger "You….You….!"

"Clod?" I finished "Sure, why not? You better think fast of what to say before they come back."


	14. Chapter XIV

_**Chapter XIV**_

DANBURITE

A few hours and one very awkward explanation later, we were on a car trip headed toward a barn in the wheat fields. Apparently it had belonged to Steven's human grandparents, who were aviators. They had all kinds of mechanical equipment. Steven and Pearl even built a rocket there, I'm told.

How convenient for this situation.

Steven opened the door and Peridot rolled out, laughing gleefully.

"Oh ground! Stationary, non-moving, unturbulent ground!"

I tried to ignore her as best as I could, she had already annoyed the hell out of me with her constant complaining of the bumpy road. I was ready to grab her and duck tape her to the roof. I focused on the surroundings so I wouldn't snap and instantly poof her...again.

"Hm...so this is your parent's farm?" I asked Greg, who was still uncomfortable around me for some reason.

"Well, yeah. I don't use it much, only to get repair tools for the van and the sound equipment." He said. "But I don't mind superheroes using it to save the world"

"Hmm" I thought. "Superheroes in a farm. I feel like I've seen that in a movie somewhere"

Greg shrugged "Beats me, I don't usually go the Big Screen as often as I used to."

And with that, he got back into the van and bid him farewell, then we started to work.

You know how people talk about the "drawing board" as the first step of making something in engineering? Well. they are _SO_ wrong. There are a million pre-steps to the pre-step of making something. Peridot started listing all the materials we needed to get started with the drill. Cobalt. Zinc. Iron. Steel. To name a few. I can openly tell you, though, that nothing, and I mean _nothing_ , is more obnoxious than Peridot giving orders. She got so annoying, even The Voice started to get annoyed.

 _She's more annoying than Jar Jar Binks_ , It said, though I have no idea who that is.

Pearl was absent for the end of our metal harvesting, so to speak. When Peridot finally said she had gotten all the materials we needed I sighed out of exhaustion. Hey, finding Zinc and Iron using only a kitchen magnet is harder than you think, let me tell ya. Steven found a chalkboard outside and started drawing on it while sitting on a swivel stool, Amethyst crashed on a pile of hay and started snoring, Garnet retreated back inside the barnhouse to do...whatever she does as a hobby, and for me, I set up a hammock in the barn opening and just chilled.

After a while, Pearl walked over and led Peridot outside. A collection of electronic components, such as microwaves, old computers, and circuit boards were stacked in a pile behind Steven, who had apparently finished his drawing as he was slowly turning on the swivel stool while Pearl talked to Peridot.

"Alright." Pearl said "What we have here in the barn should be adequate enough for us to get started. First, I recommend we organize the component types, and assemble a rough blueprint based off what we have available"

Pearl looked at the drawing behind her and grimaced a bit "Ummm... sorry, Steven, it's a lovely drawing but it won't look like this." She said.

Steven stopped spinning and frowned. Poor kid. At least he say he tried. I shuffled in my hammock as Peridot picked up a piece of chalk and gave it back to Pearl, dismissively.

"Hmm." Peridot pondered, then she nodded "Good, yes, this is adequate. Thank you. You can go now.

Pearl exchanged bewildered glances with Steven. "Uh, what?" Pearl said.

Peridot looked back at Pearl, confused. "Hm? Um... that will be all?" She tried again, this time Peridot clapped her hands in command, as if ordering a dog. Pearl continued to stand there, looking incredulously at Peridot. It was funny to watch because I knew how Pearls were supposed to act at Homeworld, even if I never experienced it. I couldn't help but smile in my hammock.

Peridot leaned in toward Steven, keeping her eyes on Pearl "How do you get her to leave?" She whispered.

Pearl crossed her arms, looking defiant. Oh here we go! Earth ethics vs. Homeworld Logic! Leeeeeeets get ready to rumblllllllllllee!

"Excuse me, I am _not_ leaving." Pearl objected.

"Yeah!" Steven added enthusiastically "She's gotta stay here to help us build the drill thing, right?"

Peridot gave that annoying, little snicker. "No, no." She said, as if it were obvious "You're confused. A pearl can't build a thing like this."

Steven tilted his head a bit "Why not?"

"Because pearls aren't _for_ this!" Peridot explained, saying everything like it was supposed to be common sense "They're for standing around, and looking nice, and holding your stuff for you…" She turned to Pearl. "Right?"

Pearl closed her eyes, Peridot clearly getting under her skin "That's enough! If we're going to work together, you're going to have to listen to me."

Peridot looked amused and bewildered "Listen to _you_?" She said, then she laughed, turning to steven "Did you teach her to talk like this?"

Pearl glared at Peridot, probably thinking of a not-so-witty witty retort while Steven tried to figure out what Peridot was trying to say.

"What are you talking about?"

"She's a _pearl_." Peridot said, again like it was obvious "She's a made-to-order servant just like the hundreds of other pearls being flaunted around back on Homeworld."

Steven looked like his mind had been hit by a truck "Wait... there's hundreds of pearls!?"

Pearls demeanor swapped to a embarrassed one, she started blushing, her cheeks turning sky blue "Well, yes," She stammered "bu-"

Peridot had stepped behind Pearl and was holding Pearl's sash "And she looks like a _fancy_ one, too."

Pearl gasped. Interesting, I had a feeling Pearl was a fancy Pearl, though I couldn't really say since I didn't know any other Pearls.

Steven looked like the truck was still crushing him, holding up his fingers as if counting them "Hundreds of pearls…"

Peridot glanced up at Pearl curiously, still holding her sash "So, who do you belong to anyway?"

Pearl glared at Peridot again, her demeanor returning to an angry one "NOBODY!" She barked, snatching the sash out of Peridot's hands. Peridot wasn't fazed by the reaction, even though such a reaction would be somewhat "informal" back at Bumhole Headquarters.

No. Peridot seemed more curious if anything "Then... what are you _for_?"

Pearl recoiled back, taking a step or two, as if recalling a painful memory.

As quickly as it came, the curious look on Peridot's face melted, getting back on point for once "Well, you can belong to me for now." She snickered at the thought "Ha! A peridot with a pearl, what would they say back home?"

Pearl turned to Peridot, clearly miffed. Peridot was either about to get roasted, or get told. Either way, it was about to go down.

'Now listen here, you tiny twerp!" Pearl growled, "In case you've forgotten, you're on _our_ turf now! And I didn't fight a thousand-year war for this planet's independence to take orders from the likes of _you_!"

Peridot returned the glare. Ohhh! Here we go!

"Excuse me? I am a natural technician and a certified Kindergartener." Peridot said as-a-matter-of-factly "I was made for this! _You_ were made to take orders, not to give them!"

They were a punch's distance from each other, Glaring into each other's eyes with loathing.

Steven stepped between them "Woah, woah, hang on guys! Now, we can all agree that you are both good at building things, so can't you just try listening to each other?

"NO!" Pearl and Peridot said in unison.

Pearl turned her attention back to Peridot "I'm as good at building things as you. Better, even!"

Peridot sneered "Hah! Name one thing you can engineer better! Go on!"

Steven looked like he had an idea, he whispered something under his breath. Whatever he said, Pearl and Peridot looked at him with interest. He continued to explain, but he was still whispering from some reason, so I couldn't hear him. I only heard Pearl's response.

"You mean like a competition?" She guessed.

"Yeah!" Steven beamed "To see who's better at building stuff!"

Peridot looked confused "What are these _robots_ you speak of?" She asked.

Ohhhh no. I know where this is going. You out there have seen this episode and I'm not gonna stick around for thi. I got up and started walking away from the barn. I remembered a tree toward the entrance of the farm. The tall grass surrounding it the tree that rested on a tiny hill. I started walking in that direction.

I heard Peridot laugh confidently "Hah, building one of these robots will be easy!"

"Well, I can build one faster!" Pearl shot back, her voice fading as I got farther.

"That's what you think!" Peridot spat, barely audible from the distance. Then I heard them running inside to grab materials for their futile feud. Aren't we supposed to be saving the world and stuff?

…

Nah, we'll do it tomorrow. Too lazy.

Never had I thought sitting against a tree watching the grass blow in the wind could be peaceful. I had been sitting there for a good hour or so, watching the afternoon turn to sunset when a gust of wind had zoomed by, then died down as fast as it came. I immediately stood up checking the surrounding areas for trespassers. A car or bike or something. Worst case scenario, it was a corrupted gem. However, that was unlikely. They usually don't hang around here. After all, most of the Crystal Gem's encounters with baddies was the _Gems_ looking for trouble, not the baddies.

Best case scenario, It was just a lost pizza guy. I could get a slice or something. I was about to shrug off the noise. After all, my nerves hadn't been the sharpest since we came here. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, a figure appeared seemingly out of nowhere. It was a girl. She wore running leggings, but I couldn't see below her knees a the grass covered it. Over a shirt bearing a strange embroidery, she wore an aviators jacket. It had some patches on it with fluff on the end of the sleeves, the top of the jacket and bottom.. Her yellow hair was blowing loosely in the wind, some of it in her face. She had aviators goggles on as was looking straight at me.

I assumed she was crouching in the grass, because there was no other way she could've snuck up on me. She looked straight at me for a second, then panic covered her face. I was about to call out for her until she ran off.

But I don't mean like "sprint" run, I mean at like the damn speed of sound. I saw some sparks of electricity fly off of her then as she got in a running position... _FLASH,_ she became a streak of light, trailed by sparks of electricity.

The only problem was that the streak came right at me and slammed me to the ground before I could even react. Then she fled with a _WOOSH._

I groaned holding my stomach, then I struggled to my feet, still clutching my belly. Damn that girl hit hard. She was obviously a gem. But who she was, I had no idea. I sat back down, feeling like someone had just used a SWAT door breach on my belly. In doing so, I saw something written in the dirt in front of me, each letter about the size of a finger.

 _Sorry about this, but technically I don't exist._

 _Thought you were someone else._

 _(Look behind you)_

 _-T_

I shot up to me feet, summoning my gauntlets. I whirled around and threw a punch. I saw the streak of light zooming toward me, slamming right into my fist. The girl flew to the grass and tumbled and rolled, sparks and small bolts of electricity occasionally sparking off of her.

"Come on!" I said "That trick is so old! Now, who are you and why are you here? Did Homeworld send you?"

She struggled to her feet, I figured trying to get away. I started to run toward her, but she was too far. She stood up and glared at me. Her eyes literally flickered with the yellow energy. Once more, she turned into a streak of light coming straight at me but at the last second, she made a sharp turn around me and hit be from behind. I stumbled forward, running into her fist, which threw me sideways into her other fist, which threw me down into her knee, which threw me up into…

Actually, you get the point right? She just kept hitting me and rushed over to where the momentum tossed me. Everything happened in seconds. I was tossed around like a volleyball, each blow feeling worse than the last. Finally, she delivered the cliche knockout punch. Y'know the one I'm talking about. Where they take a few steps back and throw a killer blow that finishes off the Hero/Villain and they fall backward on the floor in slow motion, occasionally with a scream of anger or triumph.

Only she took a few _dozen_ steps back and ran at me at like, Mach 1. Well, at least that's what it _felt_ like. The blow instantly knocked me out, which was a thing with gems, I guess. I thought we only poofed, but why not. I'd rather not be turned into a limbless poof of smoke.

When I woke up, I was laying in the hammock on the tree again. The sun was barely peeking out on the horizon, leaving the sky a dark violet rimmed with elegant shades and blends of orange. Pearl and Peridot were still standing next to each other but not trying to kill each other. Sitting against the barnhouse where two giant robots, with the cockpits in clear sight. It was obvious which robot belonged to who. Pearl's robot had a round cockpit like a plane, but had long arms and legs, of which the latter had wheels as feet and the former had sphere's with three fingers. The front had a traffic cone and a shooting star sticker on backward. Peridot's robot was more crude and had a body shaped like a diamond and had a hole in the middle for the cockpit. Two gray cones stuck out of the back of the thing, and there were two tires at the ends of the arms.

Regardless, It was night and everyone was asleep, Steven had a sock puppet on his hand as he walked into the barn. Garnet was nowhere to be seen and Amethyst was snoring on the hay pile, her rear sticking up. From the looks of things, I had dozed off and slept through the whole thing. I hoped this was case, that the girl didn't exist. We already had enough problems as it was, and we didn't need another one. The thought whirled my head as I stared up into the sky. I could see so many stars. Even Homeworlds galaxy was visible. However, the thoughts of the girl still roamed my mind. After a while of thinking about it, I had convinced myself it was a dream. Something like that could clearly be heard if it _did_ happen.

But, in truth, I was never sure.


	15. Are people still reading this?

Im wondering because i came back and saw the traffic was still active and I'm wondering if people still care about this story so I'm not leaving people with a dead end.


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